Revolutionary Moderation

Pay attention, already! Do I have to give a quiz?



Tom Tomorrow linked to this poll, which suggests that Americans have some strange ideas about what Iraq has done to deserve the military might of the world's only superpower to come crashing down upon them. 23% believe the American government has released information linking Iraq to the planning and funding of September 11, and another 37% said they didn't know or didn't want to answer. 17% correctly identified the number of Spetember 11 hijackers who were Iraqi citizens. I would mock this, but after listening to Cross-Country Checkup today, it seems there are plenty of Canadians who link Iraq to September 11, as well.



Iraq almost certainly had nothing to do with September 11. There is no evidence in the public domain to suggest otherwise. Do I seriously need to provide links to back this up? How is this not common knowledge? Are we so incompetent as citizens that we are willing to sic overwhelming military might on a foreign nation without really understanding why? To paraphrase a West Wing joke, there's an irony in doing this to promote democracy elsewhere, when it clearly doesn't work here.



I kid. We have democracy when we inform ourselves (because CNN sure ain't going to do it for us), and change the oil in our bullshit detectors every 5000 km to keep them running smoothly. We all have a responsibility to do just that.