two particularly prominent cases presenting the opportunity for further public debate of the war
in Iraq.
In March 2003 the Labour government suffered its largest backbench rebellion since
coming to office, as 139 of its own MPs voted for an anti-war amendment to a proposal debated
in the House of Commons.
Then in the space of two months to May 2003, two cabinet
ministers, each with experience of an international portfolio, Robin Cook and Clare Short,
resigned from the government over the conflict in Iraq. The more critical British media coverage
contrasts with the much less critical, if not generally supportive, coverage by the American news
media of the Bush administration’s case for military intervention in Iraq as part of the post-9/11
political environment and broad war on terrorism (Hutcheson et al., 2004; Rankin, 2004b).
The fall 2003 period was particularly tumultuous in British and American politics
regarding the war in Iraq. Our initial survey in September 2003 was conducted approximately six
months after the commencement of the war in Iraq. Saddam Hussein was still in power and still
viewed as a potential threat to the British and American forces. By the time of the first surveys in
September 2003, there were 50 UK soldier deaths and 287 US soldier deaths.
of the second surveys in December 2003, there had been increasing media and political
skepticism regarding the Blair and Bush objectives for the post-war occupation and exit strategy.
In the UK, for example, President Bush’s state visit to Britain in late November 2003 dominated
the news for several days and saw one of the largest anti-war demonstrations in Britain as
between 70,000 and 200,000 people (the lower figure being the police estimate, the higher that of
the organizers) took to the streets to protest whilst Bush was in London.
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Convention