Poll Trend review: The War of Iraq

The war in Iraq to remove the regime of Saddam Hussein is a momentous event. Preceded by more than a year of, at times, intensely acrimonious debate on its merit, the military phase began in March 2003 and continues at the time of this writing, after the elections held at the end of January 2005.1 It is therefore not possible here to give a final picture of how public opinion concerning this war evolved. The collection of data for this overview of polls has been terminated on December 31, 2004. Our review starts with describing how the Iraqi threat was perceived and then moves to the centralq uestion of whetherw ar was the appropriate course of action. We then discuss views on the various modalities and forms the war could take, and we end with judgments of the public about the war-whether it had been right or wrong, worth the effort or a mistake