News

How British attitudes to the Iraq War changed over 12 years

A 105mm gun is dropped by a Chinook helicopter to British 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery on the Fao Peninsula in southern Iraq, on 21 March 2003
A 105mm gun is dropped by a Chinook helicopter to British 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery on the Fao Peninsula in southern Iraq, on 21 March 2003

In March 2003 the UK entered the war in Iraq alongside the United States and other forces, a war which resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, and 179 British troops among thousands of other military casualties.

YouGov has conducted tracker polls over the years which highlight the changing attitudes to the war, as the majority of the country shifted from support, to condemnation.

Increasingly, more people are unsure, as currently 23 per cent don't know what their stance on the war is.

This trend has coincided with the rise of Isis in the region, over the past year or so.

The Iraq body count project estimates that documented civilian deaths in Iraq since the war began could be as high as 159,580.

The UK is still awaiting the Chilcot inquiry into the war, which has taken six years and cost £10m but is “unlikely to be published for another year at least”, according to sources close to the inquiry.

By the end of this year, the inquiry will have been sitting for longer than British combat troops were deployed to Iraq.

More: Jon Stewart lays into journalist he accuses of causing the Iraq War

More: What we do and do not know about the Iraq war inquiry delay

More: Four charts that will tell you everything you need to know about the war with Isis, one year on

The Conversation (0)
x