Polls Show Many Americans are

[Elazul Yagami]

Polls Show Many Americans are Simply Dumber Than Bush

 

Polls Show Many Americans are Simply Dumber Than Bush

 

By Paul Craig Roberts

 

01/29/06 "ICH" -- -- 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 coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com

[Weirdy]

Well, the "War on Drugs" is still going on; of course.

[someboddy]

That makes me glad that I'm not american

[Gryph]

An interesting piece but I don't know if this is really by Paul Craig Roberts.

 

But every country has it's fair share of idiots. Unfortunately, ignorance plus fear is an awful combination. Every ruling class uses that to its advantage, not just the US.

 

For anyone interested in stuff like this, I suggest you watch "Why We Fight." It's a BBC4 documentary that is going to be released in select theatres soon. Although, it is available else where on the Internet. It gives great insight into the American military machine and it is pretty unbiased. It interviews people from both sides of the issues including John McCain, Richard Perle, Bill Kristol.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0436971/

[Dooz]

Bush is not as dumb as he may seem. He's just an ass who knows how to get what he wants. And it's working, unfortionately.

Edited January 30, 2006 by Dooz

[L.S.D]

Unfortunately, ignorance plus fear is an awful combination. Every ruling class uses that to its advantage, not just the US.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0436971/

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Very very true. And used more in developing countries comapre to developed countries. See my country for example

[iganokage]

Bush is not as dumb as he may seem. He's just an ass who knows how to get what he wants. And it's working, unfortionately.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's all part of the plan

[taratata]

An interesting piece but I don't know if this is really by Paul Craig Roberts.

 

But every country has it's fair share of idiots. Unfortunately, ignorance plus fear is an awful combination. Every ruling class uses that to its advantage, not just the US.

 

For anyone interested in stuff like this, I suggest you watch "Why We Fight." It's a BBC4 documentary that is going to be released in select theatres soon. Although, it is available else where on the Internet. It gives great insight into the American military machine and it is pretty unbiased. It interviews people from both sides of the issues including John McCain, Richard Perle, Bill Kristol.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0436971/

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It was aired on a frenco-german TV channel yesterday. Very informative, it really puts current wars in a historical perspective.

Eisenhower's quote about the dangers of the militaro-industrial complex was really predictive. And noone can claim he was anti-american.

 

I had never thought about how congress could be forced to vote military funds by weapons companies. Having factories all around the US and blackmailing about employment is brilliant. Absolutely evil, but brilliant.

 

Of course, airing that documentary could also be seen as a manipulation by our countries' ruling classes. If it is, at least it's not everyday's lobotomy-like manipulation.