One of the more disturbing pieces of news that came out during the Iraq war was
the large number of Americans who believed that Saddam Hussein was involved with the
September 11 terrorists. There has never been any evidence for such a link. You can pass
off this widespread belief as simple confusion, or the result of misleading statements by
those with a vested interest in pursuing the Iraq war, but it’s nothing to be shrugged
away. In a democracy, public misperceptions carry an enormous cost.