At Spinsanity, we wrote on the website and in our book about the ways that President Bush tried to link Iraq with 9/11 and imply Saddam was in league with Al Qaeda.
These tactics worked — more than 75% of Bush supporters believed (PDF) in October 2004 that Saddam was directly involved in 9/11 (20%) or gave substantial support to Al Qaeda (55%).
Sadly, a new Zogby International poll of soldiers in Iraq (via Brad DeLong by way of Scott Rosenberg) suggests that soldiers in Iraq may be even more misinformed:
The wide-ranging poll also shows that 58% of those serving in country say the U.S. mission in Iraq is clear in their minds, while 42% said it is either somewhat or very unclear to them, that they have no understanding of it at all, or are unsure. While 85% said the U.S. mission is mainly “to retaliate for Saddam’s role in the 9-11 attacks,” 77% said they also believe the main or a major reason for the war was “to stop Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq.”
“Ninety-three percent said that removing weapons of mass destruction is not a reason for U.S. troops being there,” said Pollster John Zogby, President and CEO of Zogby International. “Instead, that initial rationale went by the wayside and, in the minds of 68% of the troops, the real mission became to remove Saddam Hussein.” 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. Only small percentages see the mission there as securing oil supplies (11%) or to provide long-term bases for US troops in the region (6%).
Here’s the text of the key questions from RadioBlogger:
Please rate the statements in questions 8 through 14 as reasons
for the Iraq invasion, using the following scale:1 – Not a reason
2 – Minor reason
3 – Major reason
4 – Main reason
5 – Not sure
8. To remove weapons of mass destruction (WMD) from Iraq
1 2 3 4 5. Not sure9. To remove Saddam Hussein from power
1 2 3 4 5. Not sure10. To establish a democracy that can be a model for the Arab
world
1 2 3 4 5. Not sure11. To stop Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq
1 2 3 4 5. Not sure12. To retaliate for Saddam’s role in the 9/11 attacks
1 2 3 4 5. Not sure13. To secure Iraqi oil supplies
1 2 3 4 5. Not sure14. To provide a long-term base for U.S. troops in the Middle
East
1 2 3 4 5. Not sure
Note: Polling in Iraq is extremely difficult and Zogby has not disclosed his methodology for security reasons — see Mystery Pollster’s posts here, here, here and here discussing how much faith we should put in the findings.