ABSTRACT
The Iraq War is a unique part of the American experience, but in ways that are not entirely apparent because the war has still not been concluded and its ultimate outcomes and impacts have yet to be reached and interpreted. Although neither as widespread nor as emotionally furtive, public opposition to the Iraq War has served much the same function as it did in Vietnam, forcing the United States to withdraw from a theater of operations without completing all the military missions necessary to achieve the political objective. The political objective in Iraq has been a matter of contention, and that has added to the unease many Americans have felt about the war. The United States was successful in overthrowing the regime of Saddam Hussein and with replacing it with something else that meets at least minimal definitions of political democracy, and that can be viewed as a positive part of the better peace.
