More than half of Americans, 54 percent, continue to incorrectly believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or a program to develop them before the US invaded last year, according to a poll released yesterday. Evidence of such weapons has never been found.
Similarly, half believe Iraq was either closely linked with al-Qaeda before the war (35 percent) or was directly involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (15 percent).
PHOTO: AFP
The poll by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland found the numbers on both questions have dropped in the face of evidence that both pre-war claims were false.
President George W. Bush has consistently equated the war on terrorism with the war in Iraq, though he has replaced his claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction with claims that Iraq had the "capability" of building such weapons.
Both the Sept. 11 commission and the Senate Intelligence Committee have raised doubts about the Bush administration's claims before the Iraq war.
Seven of 10 in the poll say they believe the US went to war in Iraq based on false assumptions. A similar number say the war in Iraq has given the US a worse image in the world.
A majority, 55 percent, say they don't think the war in Iraq will result in greater peace and stability in the Middle East.
The poll of 733 adults was conducted by Knowledge Networks from Aug. 5-11 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
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