63% of Young Americans Can't Find Iraq on a Map

National Geographic just did a survey on geographic literacy and the results don't look good.

Despite nearly constant news coverage since the war there began in 2003, 63 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 failed to correctly locate the country on a map of the Middle East. Seventy percent could not find Iran or Israel.

Ouch.

I have always thought it would be a good idea when polling people on their opinions of Iraq, they start with some basic questions like: Here is a map of the world, where is Iraq? and: What are the 3 major ethnic groups in Iraq? Because really, how much weight should you put into the opinions of people who don't even know where Iraq is or anything about it?

via National Geographic