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Article: Rally 'round the flag: opinion in the United States before and after the Iraq War.
- Article from:
- Brookings Review
- Article date:
- June 22, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Brookings Institution. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Iraq War validated a basic rule of American politics: the American public closes ranks in times of national crisis. In the prolonged march to war, the public was divided and ambivalent about the wisdom of invading Iraq rather than relying on continued United Nations weapons inspections. Most of those doubts evaporated once the bombs began falling. And the surge of patriotism not only boosted public support for President Bush, but extended beyond the White House to raise optimism about the country's institutions and American society as a whole.
The United States now confronts the question of how to win the peace in Iraq. From the early polls it is clear that ...