Juan Cole, winner of the 2003 Kofax award for the Best Expert Blog, has this post today. While I'm not sure that "stupidity" is a sufficient explanation, I do think it is fair to say (with Slavoj Zizek) that many Americans suffer from a will to ignorance. In any case what the poll points to is both dismaying and reprehensible. How can we effectively cut through this "fog of war?"
About Half the American Public is Terminally Stupid
A new poll shows that 51% of Americans believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the US went to war with it last spring. Some 47% believe that clear evidence that Iraq was supporting al-Qaeda has been found in that country. Both of these allegations are false (whether they are lies is a different matter), and any halfway informed person should know by now that they are false. What do half of Americans believe happened to all that WMD? It is not as if it can just be made to disappear with the wave of a wand; and it certainly doesn't exist in Iraq today.
You can read more about the poll here.
