Posted on 03/18/2013 10:32:44 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Ten years have passed since the United States and its allies invaded Iraq, and it appears the majority of Americans consider this a regrettable anniversary. Fifty-three percent of Americans believe their country "made a mistake sending troops to fight in Iraq" and 42% say it was not a mistake.
The March 7-10 results mark the first time Gallup has asked this question since the full withdrawal of American troops in December 2011. Although majorities or near-majorities have viewed the conflict as a mistake continuously since August 2005, the current 53% is down from the high point of 63% in April 2008.
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war. Though the engagement has now come to an end, this seminal event in recent American history still looms large in the national political consciousness. In his second inaugural address, President Barack Obama highlighted the end of the war, stating "a decade of war is now ending" and, more recently, Sen. John McCain confronted now-Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel as to whether the 2007 Iraq war "surge" was successful.
Americans initially supported the war, with substantial majorities in 2003 saying the U.S. decision to get involved in Iraq was not a mistake. However, attitudes changed relatively quickly, and by the summer of 2004, a majority of Americans called the war a mistake.
Opinions fluctuated somewhat thereafter but, with one exception, since August 2005, a majority has said the war was a mistake each time Gallup has asked the question -- and at several points, more than 60% said so. The last time Gallup asked this question, in August 2010, 55% called the war a mistake.
(Excerpt) Read more at gallup.com ...
I agree. After sending troops to die for years in that Arab hellhole all we have to show for it is a vassal state for Iran.
I count myself in that 53%. In the wake of 9-11 we should have pounded Afghanistan to dust and left it that way.
Now we have a president whose goal is not to kill terrorists, but to grow the spread of Sharia governments which hate us and Israel. This is FAR worse than any 'mistake' in Iraq. What about our 'mistake' in Egypt, Libya, failure to support the revolt in Iran, etc?? Far worse.
0bama illegally waged war on Libya without consent of Congress and all he got was four bloody T-shirts.
Ooops, I forgot about Afghanistan. How did 0bama honor the deaths of our brave soldiers there? By handing the torch to the Taliban, that’s how. We killed a lot of bad guys there too, then along came the emasculated coward Saboteur-In-Chief, friendly to the bad guys.
The only mistake we made was to waste trillions of dollars rebuilding that rathole.
Those of you who think the Iraq war was a mistake, I’m curious how you would have handled Saddam Hussein’s violations of the cease-fire agreement that suspended fighting in Kuwait?
Hey Kidd, If I were the president, I would have shot saddam in his hole (8 months into it) and then would have packed up and left the next day. It wasn’t a mistake to go in, it was a mistake to stay all those years.
I pardon them for their ignorance.
The WAR wasn’t the mistake. A dangerous maniac was taken out.
The MISTAKE was the flawed effort of the Bush II Administration to think that using western civilized methods of occupation would result in a total political and culture shift in a society of religiously fanatical troglodytes whose minds and souls are arrested in 7th Century thinking and servants of a “god” of evil and death that the Bush Administration had no intention of challenging.
“Those of you who think the Iraq war was a mistake, I’m curious how you would have handled Saddam Hussein’s violations of the cease-fire agreement that suspended fighting in Kuwait?”
And if we had not invaded Iraq then were the ‘no fly zones’ supposed to go on forever while we had to continue to patrol the ‘no fly zones’?
The idiot left is so delusional.
I Always said both Iraq and Afghanistan could have been solved with Two Thermonuclear Hydrogen Bombs.
Interesting. There was more support for Viet Nam amongst the young people on the 60s than support by young people for Afghanistan today.
For the record, I think it was a mistake to got into Iraq and Afghanistan. Since WWII, America has not gone into a war to win it. That is our big mistake. The wars are being conducted by the politicians. Our youth are being used as cannon fodder. You can’t impose Western values on people who don’t understand or want it.
While I don’t agree with the Left’s push for “alternative energy” (I think the market should handle that), I do wish that the US can get away from it’s dependence on foreign oil. If it wasn’t for oil, the Middle East would still be stuck in the Middle Ages. The sooner the Middle East goes bankrupt and disappears from the world stage, the sooner Islam disappears and the terrorism that goes with it.
Totally misleading poll. The issue is how to wage war. The Kennedy Doctrine of Limited War is a failure. Total war is the only way.
Hey CJ, What is the point of shooting saddam and leaving Iraq to al kinda of Iraq? There is a large group here that get their talking points from Chris Mathews. Iraq was a victory, now we have to finish the job in Iran and Syria. The Paulinist Isolation monkeys want to ignore threats and then, like Joe Kennedy Sr, then profit from it when we have no place else to run and hide. This time, because of nukes, there will be no place else to run and hide.
We should’ve gone in and toppled Hussein and then given notice we were pulling out in 60 days and done so, AFTER extracting was reparations.
Consider this, there are 10’s of thousands of young American combat veterans that love this country. Their skills might come in very handy, some day. I think most things, maybe all things, happen for a reason.
The war part was fine, it was the aftermath that was a cluster-you-know-what.
That was a war, was it?
The Iraq war damage is not over. It knocked off the enemy of Iran. Now it’s war with Iran.
And not looting their national museums!
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