Zogby International conducted a recent poll of American soldiers in Iraq that reflects on the power of misinformation and spin culture to create false credibility in 21st century political life.
An incredible 86% of February, 2006 respondents to the face-to-face random sampling interviews said the US mission in Iraq is mainly "to retaliate for Saddam's role in the 9-11 attacks". Just 24% said that "establishing a democracy that can be a model for the Arab World" was the main or a major reason for the war.
No proof or evidence of any possible link between the former Iraqi dictator and the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center has ever been supplied or credibly drawn. But magically it looks as if this connection is gaining momentum in the cloudy and confused spaces of media consumption.
In the buildup to the war linking Iraq and 9-11 seemed a critical necessity for the spin machine behind American foreign policy. A New York Times/CBS poll in early 2003 showed that 45% of Americans believed there was a connection after Bush delivered prime time after prime time messages interlacing but never directly linking the two concepts.
By September, 2003 with troops already deployed in the Middle East belief in the American public that Hussein was "personally involved" in the 9-11 attacks had grown to 70%.
It seemed the trend was stalling in February, 2005 when confidence in this personal connection dropped to just 47% of Americans who believed "Saddam Hussein helped plan and support the hijackers who attacked the US".
But now the startling news that almost 90% of the troops on the ground in Iraq believe this spurious connection to be the main reason they are deployed in the region. And these are not fresh scrubs new to the conflict as three quarters of the poll respondents have served multiple tours in Iraq.
So what on earth could explain this continued misconception? What else could it be if not the result of a lack of clarity and respect for truth in the media? And isn't this the kind of thing the Internet was supposed to shine a big light on with distributed voices around the globe, citizen media, and all the rest? It would make an interesting study that could provide us with some real insights into what exactly is happening in our information shapeshifting culture.
Labels: politics
