Informed Comment

College Park, MD: According to a new PIPA-Knowledge Networks poll, a majority of

Americans (55%) believe that the Bush administration went to war on the basis of

incorrect assumptions. An overwhelming 87% said that, before the war, the Bush

administration portrayed Iraq as an imminent threat, while a majority (58%) believes that

the administration did not have evidence for this and only 42% believe that it was the

case. . .

A majority of Americans believe that the evidence that the US had on Iraq did not meet

the proper international standards for going to war without UN approval. While most

believe that countries have the right to go to war if they have evidence they are in

imminent danger of being attacked with WMD, only a minority also believes that the US

had such evidence (32%) or, given what is known now, that Iraq in fact posed such a

threat (35%) . . .

A strong majority (67%) believes that countries have the right to overthrow governments,

without UN approval, if they have strong evidence that the government is providing

substantial support to a terrorist group that has attacked them. However only 38% both

believe this and think the US had strong evidence that Iraq was providing substantial