A new poll from Farleigh Dickinson University reveals that a huge portion of the American public, including the majority of self-identified Republicans, wrongly believe US invasion forces “definitely or probably” found WMDs during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Over the course of the protracted occupation, US forces found remnants of Iraq’s known former chemical weapons program, but learned that there was no active weapons program. Overwhelmingly what was “found” was under UN seal, with occasional discoveries of broken, forgotten remnants of the program.
It is disturbing to note that 42% of Americans, 51% of Republicans, and 46% of Independents all believe this long since discredited belief, many years after the Bush Administration, which used WMD as the basis for the entire war, conceded they were wrong.
At the same time, this poll shows a non-trivial hunk of the American public is willing to believe a lot of dubious propositions, with 19% believing President Obama is not a US citizen, and 13% believing that the Secret Service is “intentionally leaving President Obama unprotected.”
