PUBLIC SOURING ON AFGHANISTAN - AT 7:15 A.M. ET:  President Obama faces a number of national-security challenges.  One of the most critical will be the public's souring on the struggle in Afghanistan.  The president must do a far better job of explaining our presence there, and why it's important to each American.  From the Washington Post:

A majority of Americans now see the war in Afghanistan as not worth fighting, and just a quarter say more U.S. troops should be sent to the country, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

This is music to the ears of the Democratic Party's left wing, whose "out of Iraq" congressional caucus is now morphing into an "out of Afghanistan" caucus.  These "anti-war" Democrats are the cream of hypocrisy.  The only wars they're ever against are the ones America has a chance of winning.  They remind me of the "anti-war" demonstrators during Vietnam, whose demonstrations mysteriously ended as soon as the draft ended.

In January, before President Obama authorized sending an additional 17,000 troops to the country, public sentiment tilted more strongly toward a troop increase.

Should Obama embrace his generals' call for even more forces, he would risk alienating some of his staunchest supporters. Although 60 percent of Americans approve of how Obama has handled the situation in Afghanistan, his ratings among liberals have slipped, and majorities of liberals and Democrats alike now, for the first time, solidly oppose the war and are calling for a reduction in troop levels.

These "liberals" aren't liberals any longer.  True liberalism, in its noblest days, always backed a strong national defense.  Think Henry Jackson, Paul Douglas, Jack Kennedy.  Today's "liberals" have their roots in the sixties.

Republicans (70 percent say it is worth fighting) and conservatives (58 percent) remain the war's strongest backers, and the issue provides a rare point of GOP support for Obama's policies.

It shows the basic fairness of conservatives, most of whom have long since abandoned the isolationism of the thirties and forties.  We've had quite a role reversal on national security, with Republicans now advocating policies that Democrats used to advocate, and Democrats advocating chaos.

Work to be done - not only in politics, but in our educational system.  Here is an opportunity for the president to provide thoughtful leadership, and break away from his party's hopeless left.  But will he do it?

August 20, 2009