America still believes the neocon Big Lie on Iran

By Cernig

The pouty-lipped paranoids of the extreme right are all agog today at a new Rasmussen poll that says the majority of Americans (66%) don't believe that Iran has halted its nuclear weapons program. In particular, they note, the poll found that "Twenty-nine percent (29%) of liberal voters believe that Iran has stopped its weapons program but 54% disagree."

This brings great jubilation to the War Party. Hah, no-one is as gullible as the intelligence community and career non-proliferation diplomats except lefty bloggers!

Now, back to the real world, where the majority public impression of foreign affairs is formed by White House agitprop stenographed by a tame media. The White House and its media enablers have banged the drum over the spectre of a nuclear Iran so long and so hard, the American public still haven't caught up with the latest news.

And it might take a long time, so deeply has the "nuke-armed mullahs" meme been set.

Recall this from March 2003?

Nearly seven in 10 Americans believe it is likely that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, says a poll out almost two years after the terrorists' strike against this country.

Or this from June this year?

A new Newsweek poll out this weekend exposed "gaps" in America's knowledge of history and current events.

Perhaps most alarmingly, 41% of Americans answered 'Yes' to the question "Do you think Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was directly involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001?"

That total is actually up 5 points since September 2004.

Further, a majority of people couldn't identify Saudia Arabia as the country of origin of most of the 9/11 hijackers, even given the question in multiple choice format. 20% answered Iraq, while 14% believed the hijackers came from Iran.

Iran's nuclear threat has been the neocon's big lie for four years, one they are loathe to let go because it gives them their only grasp on power after they were proven so horribly wrong in Iraq. That their big lie was swallowed wholesale is the only thing measured by the latest Rasmussen poll.