As National Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Max Boot observed recently at Commentary Magazine's Contentions, "the same dynamic applies as that which held in Iraq and in most of our other wars: the public is skeptical because they don't see enough signs of progress. ... Only by adequately resourcing the war effort and pursuing an effective counterinsurgency strategy can the U.S. armed forces make the progress necessary to raise public support for the war effort and win what President Obama has just described as a 'war of necessity.'"
It is easy to believe that the danger posed by terrorism is waning -- we have not had an attack on American soil in nearly eight years, after all. But it would be foolhardy to believe that those intent on the destruction of our way of life have simply moved on or are so weakened that they pose little threat to us.
Iraq has been racked with violence in the last several days, with lethal attacks aimed at toppling the government there. The remaining American forces have been left on the sidelines unable even to assist the wounded and dying without being directly asked to do so by Iraqi leaders. And the fight in Afghanistan is proving difficult, especially since so few Afghan forces are trained to help, and NATO troops have shown themselves, as Boot points out, "unwilling either to fight or to provide the resources for fighting effectively."
President Obama sold the American electorate on the notion that he was tough enough to take on America's enemies. But if he wants to keep America safe, he will have to challenge his own supporters -- Democratic voters and members of Congress -- to support his efforts in Afghanistan. He's done the right thing to date by increasing U.S. troops, but he has to convince the public that this war is winnable in order to continue the fight. And the only way to do that is for the president to give his military commanders in the field the added resources and troops they need to prevail, even if it proves temporarily unpopular. It remains to be seen whether the president will do so.