20 YEARS LATER: Most Americans see Iraq War as mixed bag at best

(TND) — The Iraq War is largely out of mind as Americans mark the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion to uncover weapons of mass destruction and topple Saddam Hussein's regime.

The weapons weren't found, but Hussein was successfully removed from power after a decade of flouting international inspections stemming from the Gulf War.

The Iraq War changed America and the world, yet its fingerprints appear barely visible in the minds and memories of most Americans, says the group More in Common in a new report on the war’s legacy.

More in Common, which fosters common ground to enable problem-solving and progress, teamed with YouGov for a survey last month of around 2,000 Americans.

The survey found only 1 in 4 Americans "often" or "sometimes" think about the Iraq War, and only 1 in 5 say the war changed their life.

There's a disconnect between its actual significance and its perceived salience,” said More in Common U.S. Director Dan Vallone.

More in Common, and its Veterans and Citizens Initiative, aim to bridge the veteran community with broader society. This survey is part of that aim.

We want to increase the degree of understanding between these two populations and make it easier for folks to start to build relationships, to have dialogue,” Vallone said.

And there are lessons to be learned from the experiences in the Iraq War, he said.

“(The war) did really shape the country that we live in, in the world that we exist in, to a significant measure,” Vallone said.

The war began on March 20, 2003.

Major combat operations were declared over in May of that year following the successful "shock and awe" invasion.

Hussein was captured in December of that year and executed three years later.

The war’s two phases, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn, stretched until 2011.

The U.S. waged war in Afghanistan at the same time, which may overshadow the Iraq War now with the fresh wounds of the American troop withdrawal in the summer of 2021.

Vallone also said it’s tough for Americans to disentangle the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as they both fall under the banner of the war on terror following the 9/11 attacks.

There were lasting costs from the war. Nearly 4,500 service members gave their lives and about 32,000 were wounded during the Iraq War.

Vallone also noted the degradation of trust in public institutions, such as the government, that began during the Iraq War era.

“Clearly this war had significant impacts in terms of how we trust government, how we trust each other, how we trust media,” he said.

Americans today hold mixed, though largely negative, views on the war.

Four in 10 Americans think the Iraq War had a mix of successes and failures, according to the More in Common survey.

Three in 10 see it more as a failure and fewer than 2 in 10 see it more as a success.

Twenty-seven percent of people, including 18% of veterans, think no aspect of the war went well.

Military members get the largest share of credit for aspects of the Iraq War that went well. Forty-two percent of survey respondents said the troops deserve most of the credit.

Former President George W. Bush gets the largest share of the blame for what went poorly, with 38%.

Republicans and Democrats would be surprised at just how similarly they view the war, Vallone said.

For example, 36% of Democrats and 47% of Republicans think the war was a mixed bag.

But there’s a wider disparity when it comes to blame.

Over half of Democrats place the majority of blame at Bush’s feet, while nearly 40% of Republicans blame former President Barack Obama.

Most Republicans and Democrats actually have very similar feelings about the war,” Vallone said. “They view it as either less than successful or has having a mix of success or failures. They have a lot of negative associations in terms of the decisions to go to war in the first place. And so there is actually a lot of similarity that cuts across party ID, but there is this polarized layer of blame.”

Veterans hold largely negative views towards the war, with three-quarters saying the war was either a failure or a mix of successes and failures. Thirty-one percent of veterans say the war was at least mostly a failure.

Meanwhile, 28% of people with no military background or connection say the war was at least mostly a failure.

Overall, only 14% of people think the war was at least mostly a success.

Vallone said he was surprised at just how little the public knows about the Iraq War.

A plurality of Americans cannot name five events from the war, according to the survey.

It underscores the need to learn about the war,” Vallone said.

A college student today was probably too young to remember anything about the war, so they either learn about it in school or from someone who was involved.

And Vallone noted that many Americans don’t actually know someone who served.

Most people, 63%, have never talked to an Iraq War veteran about their experience. Half don’t even know someone who served in the war.

Veterans’ advocacy group Mission Roll Call separately conducted a poll that showed 67% of Gen Z respondents don’t personally know a military member or veteran.

And Mission Roll Call says 80% of veterans say they have an immediate family member who served, which points to how military service has become a narrow swath of the American public.

Vallone, of More in Common, said they want to strengthen the connective tissue between veterans and the general public.

He said there’s strong support, 77%, for learning about the Iraq War.

And over two-thirds of Americans support creating a “Military History Month” that encourages schools and local communities to learn about American military history.

Vallone said that’s much needed, and it’s best handled at the local level.

“It's a lot easier to avoid polarizing narratives if you're at the local level,” he said.

Local, or statewide, efforts would also allow for more innovation in the programs, he said.

But he acknowledged that translating these insights into actions will be difficult and will require buy-in from broad coalitions.

He’s hopeful that will happen and that this survey can help stir conversations.

“There is this story of a bigger us that kind of transcends our political identity and talks about our experiences with the war as Americans,” he said.