A majority of respondents in both nations agree with Tony Blair’s notion that removing Saddam Hussein was the right course of action.
As the seventh anniversary of the start of the Iraq War approaches, people in the United States and Great Britain are doubtful about the scheduled withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, and sizeable proportions regret the decision to launch military action in the first place, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.
In the online survey of representative national samples of 2,010 British adults and 1,001 American adults, two thirds of Britons (68%) and more than half of Americans (58%) say they currently oppose the war in Iraq.
Almost half of Americans (48%) believe the U.S. government made a mistake in launching military action against Iraq in 2003. This view is shared by three-in-five Britons (62%).
The Future
A security agreement signed between the United States and Iraq calls for the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of 2011.
Only 31 per cent of Americans—and 21 per cent of Britons—are “very confident” or “moderately confident” that the timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops will be met.
One-in-four Britons (24%) believe that the world will look back on the war in Iraq in twenty years and brand it as a defeat for the U.S. and its allies, while 11 per cent claim it will be regarded as a victory. Americans are almost evenly divided in their assessment (18% defeat, 19% victory).
Tony Blair
Recently, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right thing to do, even if his regime did not possess weapons of mass destruction. More than half of Britons (55%) agree with Blair’s statement, along with seven-in-ten Americans (69%).
Full Report, Detailed Tables and Methodology (PDF)
CONTACT:
Andy Morris, Research Director, London
+ 44-207-065-7272
andy.morris@angus-reid.com
Mario Canseco, Vice President, Public Affairs
+604 647 3570
mario.canseco@angus-reid.com
