Fallacies led to war support

[vonZapfenau]

WASHINGTON - A majority of Americans have held at least one of three mistaken impressions about the U.S.-led war in Iraq, according to a new study released Thursday, and those misperceptions contributed to much of the popular support for the war.

The three common mistaken impressions are that:


• U.S. forces found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.


• There's clear evidence that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein worked closely with the Sept. 11 terrorists.


• People in foreign countries generally either backed the U.S.-led war or were evenly split between supporting and opposing it.

Overall, 60 percent of Americans held at least one of those views in polls reported between January and September by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, or PIPA, based at the University of Maryland in College Park, and the polling firm, Knowledge Networks based in Menlo Park, Calif.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1003iraq-misconceptions03.html

...and the best part is that the study found Faux News viewers to be the most deluded of all news consumers! Touche!

[chadm]

1. I don't believe people still believe that

I would say only Fox loyalists could believe that.

[vonZapfenau]

3. well for instance...

the study showed that, on question of the Saddam/al-Qaida link, 67% of Faux viewers believed in it, compared to just 16% for those who got their info from PBS/NPR. But for CBS, NBC, CNN and ABC, the percentages were 56%, 49%, 48% and 45%, respectively.

Among those who relied mainly on print media, 40% believed in that myth. Similar results obtained from the other two questions.

[hail to the thief]

2. There are delusional people out there

There are people out there who have such a deep respect for the office of the Presidency ( in other words, saps )that they give the President the benefit of the doubt alot of the time. Anybody who looks at the whole Iraqi affair dispassionately though must come to the conclusion that these people are war criminals and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

[peterh]

4. Evidence of a well-oiled propaganda machine…

And it helps to have a rather gullible populace…

[smallprint]

5. This wins the "obvious headline" award

Of course fallacies lead to war support. This war was built on lies. EVERY war is built on lies: Gulf War I, Panama, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Korea, etc. If it weren't for fallacies, people would rarely, if ever, support war at all!!

[young_at_heart]

6. Faux viewers don't care about the facts

Unfortunately they don't think about the possiblity that their leader could tell lies and they believe the lies are absolute truth. It's so painful!