Poll: On 10th anniversary, Americans oppose and have few connections to Iraq war

A poll released just days after the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war found that most Americans do not believe the conflict was worth fighting, and are likely to know someone who was killed or wounded in the fighting.

Fewer than a quarter of respondents to a YouGov/Huffington Post poll released Tuesday say the Iraq war was worth fighting, with 54 percent of those surveyed saying they do not believe the benefits outweighed the costs. An additional 22 percent said they were not yet sure whether the war was worth fighting.

Even more dramatic is the extent to which few Americans have personally experienced the toll of the war. Of respondents, nearly eight in 10 say that nobody in their immediate family served in combat in Iraq. Another 4 percent aren't sure, while 2 percent say they served personally, and 14 percent say someone in their immediate family fought in the conflict.

Moreover, a majority — 53 percent — say they don't know or aren't sure they know anyone at all who served in combat in the war in Iraq. And 87 percent say that they aren't sure or don't know anyone who was wounded in the conflict. By contrast, one percent of respondents say they were wounded, and 12 percent say they know someone who was.

Similarly, 95 percent of respondents say they don't know or aren't sure if they personally knew anyone killed in the conflict. The Department of Defense counts 4,488 casualties as a result of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn, with 32,221 wounded in action as part of those efforts.

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