On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 snit snat quoted a PIPA study that said:
> http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Pres_Election_04/html/new_10_21_04.html#1
>
> Bush Supporters Still Believe Iraq Had WMD or Major Program,
> Supported al Qaeda
>
> Even after the final report of Charles Duelfer to Congress saying that
> Iraq did not have a significant WMD program, 72% of Bush supporters
> continue to believe that Iraq had actual WMD (47%) or a major program for
> developing them (25%).
This is a recurringly amazing chestnut. But what's really amazing is that that the portion holding these views has gone substantially *up in the past two months* -- when the refutations have been as total and official and well publicized as it is imaginable for them to be (the 9/11 Commission report, which astonishingly became a best seller, and the Duelfer Report, which received enormous coverage just a second ago); and when even the Administration has been forced, on the surface, it seemed, to say uncle. It's not that the press hasn't been able to make headway against the original lies. It's that lies are still making headway and persuading new converts. The same PIPA study done in August, quoted in Editor & Publisher, (and quoted on lbo-talk: http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20040823/018702.html)
said:
* 35% believe Iraq had WMD when the U.S. invaded, and another 19% feel it "had a major program for developing them" at the time.
Similarly this week's study said that
> Similarly, 75% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq was
> providing substantial support to al Qaeda
whereas two months ago:
> Exactly half believe that Iraq was either closely linked with al Qaeda
> before the war (35%) or was directly involved in the 9/11 attacks (15%).
(That last figure in the present PIPA study is now 20% -- up a third).
The lies of this administration really do seem different in nature than any lies we've seen in living memory. It's not just that they went to war on the basis of lies, or they they are campaigning on them -- we've seen both of those things before, if not to the same degree. But what's baffling and amazing is how they are able to maintain them -- and even to strengthen them -- in the face of combined resistance of all the institutions that have normally defined the consensus wisdom.
The amazing thing about faith-based reality is how they've been able to spread the faith -- and how nothing seems able to stop them. No wonder they believe. From all the signs, something really has changed.
Michael