The Harris Poll's latest survey finds most Americans want most U.S. troops home from Iraq a year from now. It also finds, though, that most Americans think it was the right war, in the right place at the right time:

-- 88 percent of U.S. adults believe that Saddam Hussein would have made weapons of mass destruction if he could have (down slightly from 90% in November).

-- 76 percent believe that the Iraqis are better off now than they were under Saddam Hussein (same as November).

-- 64 percent believe that history will give the U.S. credit for bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq (up slightly from 63% in November).

-- 64 percent believe that Saddam Hussein had strong links to Al Qaeda (up slightly from 62% in November).

-- 61 percent believe that Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, was a serious threat to U.S. security (down slightly from 63% in November).

This would largely explain why, despite the anti-war crowd's mantra of "Where are the WMD?", President Bush was re-elected and why there are no LBJ-style protests outside the White House as there were during the Vietnam era.

After all this time, almost nine out of every ten Americans thinks Saddam would have produced WMD if he had the chance and almost two-thirds of Americans think the tyrannical, bloodthirsty dictator was a threat to the U.S.

Harris made some other findings, though, that it suggested were unusual:

-- 47 percent believe that Saddam Hussein helped plan and support the hijackers who attacked the U.S. on September 11, 2001 (up six percentage points from November).

-- 44 percent actually believe that several of the hijackers who attacked the U.S. on September 11 were Iraqis (up significantly from 37% in November).

-- 36 percent believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded (down slightly from 38% in November).

Actually, though, the 9-11 Commission found ample evidence Saddam and bin Laden played footsy, and that Saddam offered bin Laden sanctuary in Iraq even after the al Qaeda madman declared war on the U.S.

Bottom line: the numbers suggest clearly that most Americans simply think the war in Iraq was necessary. And the anti-war left is now focusing on fringe players on the far right and handwringing over every wink and nudge any members of Congress make on Social Security reform.