Set forth below are to two opinion polls taken at five different points in time regarding the United States decision to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power. One polls was taken from Iraqi’s and one from the Americans.The wording the polls is not the same, but the basic question more or less is.
| From today’s perspective and all things considered, was it absolutely right, somewhat right, somewhat wrong, or absolutely wrong that US-led coalition forces invaded Iraq in spring 2003? | |||||
| Mar08 | Aug07 | Feb07 | 2005 | 2004 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absolutely Right | 21 | 12 | 22 | 19 | 20 |
| Somewhat Right | 28 | 25 | 25 | 28 | 29 |
| Somewhat Wrong | 23 | 28 | 19 | 17 | 13 |
| Absolutely Wrong | 27 | 35 | 34 | 33 | 26 |
| Refused/don’t know | – | – | – | 4 | 13 |
and this one
| “Looking back, do you think the United States did the right thing in taking military action against Iraq, or should the U.S. have stayed out?” | |||||
| Apr08 | Sep07 | Feb07 | Jul05 | Jul04 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Right Thing | 37 | 39 | 38 | 48 | 45 |
| Stayed Out | 57 | 53 | 55 | 46 | 51 |
| Unsure | 6 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 4 |
Can you guess which poll is of Americans and which one is of Iraqi’s? Answer after the jump.
The first chart is a poll of Iraqis. The second is of Americans. Interesting huh? After five years, more Iraqi’s have a positive opinion of the invasion than Americans do.
Without knowing any more information I’d guess that the “Absolutely Rights” consist mainly of Kurds, the Absolutely Wrongs mainly of Sunni’s, with the Shia’s of mixed opinion. But that’s a guess.
I couldn’t figure out when in 2004 the poll was taken, but its interesting to note that even after a civil war the numbers are more or less back where they were four years ago. The only difference is that the percentage of the population which answered “Refused/don’t know” in 2004 has mostly ended up in the “Somewhat Wrong” category.