For an embarrassingly long time, large numbers of Americans believed a series of bogus claims about Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, including non-existent connections to 9\/11. The good news is the percentages have fallen considerably since the war began. The bad news is we still have a ways to go.<\/p>\n
According to a new poll<\/a> published today by the Wall Street Journal, war-related myths continue linger in the public’s mind.<\/p>\n * 41% of poll respondents said Saddam Hussein had “strong links” with Al Qaeda. This is down from 64% who believed this 10 months ago.<\/p>\n * 22% said Hussein helped plan and support the hijackers who attacked the United States on 9\/11. In February 2005, 47% believed this. (Complicating matters in the more recent poll, an additional 30% said they were “not sure” if this is true or not.)<\/p>\n * 26% said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded. That’s down 10 points since February.<\/p>\n * 24% said several of the hijackers who attacked the U.S. on September 11 were Iraqis. Ten months ago, 44% believed this. (In case you’ve forgotten, the actual number of Iraqi hijackers on 9\/11 is zero.)<\/p>\n Who’s responsible for such widespread confusion? The Bush administration clearly deserves some blame with its irresponsible and highly misleading rhetoric<\/a>, before the invasion and after it. That said, some of these claims were dropped from the White House talking points over a year ago, and some (such as the notion of Iraqi hijackers) were never uttered in the first place.<\/p>\n