Polls Show Many Americans are Simply Dumber Than Bush
- From: bromselick@xxxxxxx
- Date: 28 Jan 2006 23:09:08 -0800
By Paul Craig Roberts*
----------------------------------------------------
*Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of
the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He
was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal
editorial page and Contributing Editor of National
Review. He is co-author of The Tyranny of Good
Intentions.He can be reached at:
paulcraigroberts@xxxxxxxxx
----------------------------------------------------
[ "Americans need desperately to comprehend
that if Bush attacks Iran and Syria, as he intends,
terrorism will explode, and American civil
liberties will disappear into a thirty year war that
will bankrupt the United States." ]
[ "The total lack of rationality and competence
in the White House and the inability of half of
the US population to acquire and understand
information are far larger threats to Americans
than terrorism.America has become a rogue
nation, flying blind, guided only by ignorance
and hubris. A terrible catastrophe awaits." ]
Two recent polls, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg
poll and a New York Times/CBS News poll, indicate
why Bush is getting away with impeachable offenses.
Half of the US population is incapable of acquiring,
processing and understanding information.
Much of the problem is the media itself, which serves as
a disinformation agency for the Bush administration. Fox
"News" and right-wing talk radio are the worst, but with
propagandistic outlets setting the standard for truth and
patriotism, all of the media is affected to some degree.
Despite the media's failure, about half the population has
managed to discern that the US invasion of Iraq has not
made them safer and that the Bush administration's
assault on civil liberties is not a necessary component of
the war on terror. The problem, thus, lies with the absence
of due diligence on the part of the other half of the population.
Consider the New York Times/CBS poll. Sixty-four percent
of the respondents have concerns about losing civil liberties
as a result of anti-terrorism measures put in place by
President Bush. Yet, 53 percent approve of spying without
obtaining court warrants "in order to reduce the threat of
terrorism."
Why does any American think that spying without a
warrant has any more effect in reducing the threat of
terrorism than spying with a warrant? The Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act, which Bush is
disobeying, requires the executive to obtain from a
secret panel of federal judges a warrant for spying
on Americans. The purpose of the law is to prevent
a president from spying for partisan political reasons.
The law permits the president to spy first (for 72
hours) and then come to the court for permission. As
the court meets in secret, spying without a warrant is
no more effective in reducing the threat of terrorism
than spying with a warrant.
Instead of explaining this basic truth, the media has
played along with the Bush administration and
formulated the question as a trade-off between civil
liberties and protection from terrorists. This
formulation is false and nonsensical. Why does the
media enable the Bush administration to escape
accountability for illegal behavior by putting false
and misleading choices before the people?
The LA Times/Bloomberg poll has equally striking
anomalies. Only 43 percent said they approved of
Bush's performance as president. But a majority
believe Bush's policies have made the US more
secure.
It is extraordinary that anyone would think Americans
are safer as a result of Bush invading two Muslim
countries and constantly threatening two more with
military attack. The invasions and threats have caused
a dramatic swing in Muslim sentiment away from the
US.Prior to Bush's invasion of Iraq, a large majority of
Muslims had a favorable opinion of America. Now
only about 5 percent do.
A number of US commanders in Iraq and many Middle
East experts have told the American public that the
three year-old war in Iraq is serving both to recruit and
to train terrorists for al Qaeda, which has grown many
times its former size. Moreover, the US military has
concluded that al Qaeda has succeeded in having its
members elected to the new Iraqi government.
We have seen similar developments both in Egypt and
in Pakistan. In the recent Egyptian elections, the
radical Muslim Brotherhood, despite being suppressed
by the Egyptian government, won a large number of
seats. In Pakistan elements friendly or neutral toward
al Qaeda control about half of the government. In Iraq,
Bush's invasion has replaced secular Sunnis with
Islamist Shia allied with Iran.
And now with the triumph of Hamas in the Palestinian
election, we see the total failure of Bush's Middle
Eastern policy. Bush has succeeded in displacing
secular moderates from Middle Eastern governments
and replacing them with Islamic extremists. It boggles
the mind that this disastrous result makes Americans
feel safer!
What does it say for democracy that half of the
American population is unable to draw a rational
conclusion from unambiguous facts?
Americans share this disability with the Bush
administration. According to news reports, the Bush
administration is stunned by the election victory of
the radical Islamist Hamas Party, which swept the
US-financed Fatah Party from office. Why is the
Bush administration astonished?
The Bush administration is astonished because
it stupidly believes that hundreds of millions of
Muslims should be grateful that the US has
interfered in their internal affairs for 60 years,
setting up colonies and puppet rulers to
suppress their aspirations and to achieve,
instead, purposes of the US government.
Americans need desperately to understand that 95
percent of all Muslim terrorists in the world were
created in the past three years by Bush's invasion
of Iraq.
Americans need desperately to comprehend
that if Bush attacks Iran and Syria, as he
intends, terrorism will explode, and American
civil liberties will disappear into a thirty year
war that will bankrupt the United States.
The total lack of rationality and competence in
the White House and the inability of half of the
US population to acquire and understand
information are far larger threats to Americans
than terrorism.
America has become a rogue nation, flying blind,
guided only by ignorance and hubris. A terrible
catastrophe awaits.
...............................
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of
the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He
was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal
editorial page and Contributing Editor of National
Review. He is co-author of The Tyranny of Good
Intentions.He can be reached at:
paulcraigroberts@xxxxxxxxx
.
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