Take the question Gallup has been asking ever since the war started: “In view of the developments since we first sent our troops to Iraq, do you think the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq, or not?” The chart below shows the year-to-year progression of responses to this question, starting with the response Gallup got right after the initial invasion and ending with their most recent reading in early March of this year.
This year-to-year progression shows that the public started with an overwhelmingly positive judgment of the war—just 23 percent of Americans thought the war was a mistake in 2003. But this trend steadily reversed over time so that now 59 percent of Americans believe the war has been a mistake. It is worth noting that this 59 percent “mistake” figure is now just about as high as the peak response Gallup received to an analogous question during the Vietnam War—61 percent.
