Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Time To Bang Head Against Garage Door Again



If you don't have a garage door use the desktop instead. Or the floor. A new Harris poll just came out and found this interesting piece of news:

Half of Americans now say Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the United States invaded the country in 2003 -- up from 36 percent last year, a Harris poll finds. Pollsters deemed the increase both "substantial" and "surprising" in light of persistent press reports to the contrary in recent years.
The survey did not speculate on what caused the shift in opinion, which supports President Bush's original rationale for going to war. Respondents were questioned in early July after the release of a Defense Department intelligence report that revealed coalition forces recovered 500 aging chemical weapons containing mustard or sarin gas nerve agents in Iraq.
"Filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist," said Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican, during a June 21 press conference detailing the newly declassified information.
Rep. Peter Hoekstra, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, who shared the podium, said, "Iraq was not a WMD-free zone."
In recent weeks, the Michigan Republican has recommended that more material confiscated since the invasion be declassified and made public, including a 1998 standing order to Iraqi officials to hide or destroy weapons and thus evade inspectors from the United Nations.

You can read more depressive findings in the poll here.

Why this sudden increase in the number of those who believe the original misdirections of the Bush administration? I can think of three reasons: First, there was that little Santorum-smelling campaign a few weeks before the poll was taken, and sadly, a very large number of Americans now get no neutral news at all. They might even think that politicians tell the truth. That kind man on the Fox News just told us... Second, the sample in the study may be unrepresentative of the general population. This can happen even in the best families, you know, just because. Third, American opinions may have but a tenuous connection to facts.

After you are done with the head banging try to remember the exact spot on the door you used so that next time you can bang on some other spot and won't have to replace the door so soon. The voice of experience speaking here.