What do Americans think about the U.S. war with Iran, and how have their opinions shifted since the conflict began?

A Washington Post poll of 1,005 Americans finds less opposition to the U.S. military actions than when they began, although more people still would prefer that the strikes stop than continue.

A steady majority say the Trump administration has not clearly explained the war’s goals, and most say the number of U.S. casualties — including seven service members reported killed in action — is unacceptable.

Many Americans are still making up their minds on the military campaign or hold a mix of positive and negative views about it.

This Washington Post poll was conducted online and by phone March 6-9, 2026, among a random national sample of 1,005 adults. The sample was drawn through SSRS’s Opinion Panel, an ongoing survey panel recruited through random sampling of U.S. households. The sample was weighted to match U.S. population demographics, partisanship and civic engagement. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points, including design effects due to weighting. Sampling, data collection and tabulation was conducted by SSRS of Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. Details on the March 1 Post poll are available here.