Iraq War 'Delivered Little But Bloodshed', Say Britons In 10-Year Anniversary Poll

Tom Clark
The Guardian, Thursday 14 February 2013

After the anti-war marchers took to London's streets in February 2003, Tony Blair brushed them aside and suggested history would be his judge. Ten years on, the ink on the first draft of history is dry, and, according to a Guardian/ICM poll, Britons are not reading it in the way Blair would have hoped.

A majority of voters, 55%, agree with suggestions that "the London marchers were right", because "a war sold on a false prospectus delivered little but bloodshed". That is almost twice the 28% who believe the marchers were wrong, on the basis that the war's achievement in "toppling the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein" eventually made the world a better place.

The approximately two-to-one balance of opinion against the Iraq war broadly applies across both sexes and every age range. Every nation and region of the UK also retains a clear anti-war majority, with the judgment in Wales – 65% in favour; 22% against – the most emphatic.

The marchers are also vindicated by opinion up and down the social scale, although the 49%-36% balance of opinion in favour of the marchers among the so-called AB occupational grades is somewhat more balanced than the crushing anti-war majorities among working-class voters.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/feb/15/iraq-war-10-year-anniversary-poll