President Bush has said that there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. A strange admission — because no one with even the most basic understanding of the Middle East believed that Saddam was in any way linked with the attack. Yet a poll in the US indicates that 70 percent of Americans believe it. A substantial number of them also think that Iraqis were involved in the attack, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

The blame lies entirely with the Bush administration. From the president downward, the US government has for the past two years deliberately clouded what were two distinct issues: Sept. 11 and the Iraqi regime. They confused the public and the media alike into believing that there was a link by constantly talking about Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda in the same breath. Only last week, Vice President Dick Cheney was still refusing to rule out a link between Iraq and Sept. 11, saying “we don’t know.”

Why now, two years on — after the invasion of Iraq that so benefited from the US public believing that Saddam Hussein was involved — has Bush come clean? Clearly with the 2004 election campaign under way, he needs to pre-empt accusations that he deliberately misled the American public. If there is one thing that Americans will not tolerate, it is official deception. The Democrats are going to throw that accusation at the Bush camp from now to November next year, and the US media is going to jump on it, all the more so because it too is likely to be bitter at having been used to spread the lie.

From an Arab and Muslim perspective, however, this has far more serious implications than the mere fate of Bush or the outcome of the next US election.

The appalling reality is that Americans were ready to believe anything about Saddam Hussein because he has been so demonized by American officialdom and the media. And so too has Yasser Arafat; if asked, Americans would probably answer that he too was involved in Sept. 11. It does not stop there. The anti-Saudi, anti-Muslim current flowing through American politics and media shows no sign of abating. Nor is it being countered, other than with complaints. There is no point expecting the American media or public to start seeing the Middle East as it is. They have already proved they cannot. What is needed is a pro-active, intelligent campaign, working alongside the mainstream US media, to change American perceptions. We have seen what happens when Americans get their facts wrong. They supported a war that was wrong; they support an Israel that is wrong. US public ignorance about the region is at the root of the Middle East’s problems. It has to be countered.