Mumbai Attacks and their impact

[JJackson]

I note the poll was conducted in March and AFAIK the Pakistani government accepted Lashkar-e-Taiba’s involvement in January. I do not know how the Pakistani public get their information and which sources they believe. The poll would indicate they do not hold their own government in very high esteem. In any case does it really matter? How they came to their belief is not the point; we have to deal with the reality of a population that basically views the US as the enemy and their own government as their accomplices. Any policy initiatives or military actions should be framed based on these realities not the lip service being paid by those who are benefiting form US largesse.

Omarali50 I am not sure I followed your Canadian bombing analogy. I would question the “sensibly follows the lead of their government” bit. As I recall polling data - long after the US Administration had admitted that Iraq was in no way involved in 9/11 – showed a large proportion of the public still thought it was. This seems to back up your assertion that the public will believe what they were told by the government, however it throws into question whether they were sensible so to do. When my government looked like it was going to go to war in Iraq my children went off and protested. I stayed at home confident that while the WMD claims seemed very weak the intelligence they were privy to – and I was not – must have been very strong as they would not attack another country without solid proof. Less than 75% of my fellow citizens (UK – are we a modern state?) fell for the propaganda and I will be more difficult to con next time. As you say it is difficult for the public to come to a judgement as there is seldom any reliable information. One other worrying point in your post is the military. How did they get in to this conversation? I hope they will not be telling me what to think about anything, they should implement the policies of the politicians – assuming we are talking about democracies rather than military governments.