By Jodie Allen, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Recent polls reveal a curious contrast between the public's current feelings about America's ongoing war in Afghanistan and the possibility of the nation adding another front to its list of military engagements, this one in Iran.

Though most Americans aren't ready to cut and run, an increasing number are having second thoughts about U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. A Pew Research Center November poll finds 56 percent endorsing the initial decision to use force, down 8 percentage points since January. Similarly, a late September Pew poll found support among Americans for keeping troops in Afghanistan until the country is stable stood at 50 percent—a hefty seven-point drop since June. This despite the fact that fully three-in-four Americans see a Taliban takeover in Afghanistan as a major threat to U.S. well-being.

Yet even as enthusiasm for involvement in Afghanistan faded, an October Pew Research survey, found that by a substantial 61 percent to 24 percent margin, Americans said that it is more important to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons than to avoid a military conflict with that country. True, the survey also found hefty support for direct negotiations—but most Americans just don't think they'll work. And when faced with the choice between a nuclear-armed Iran and military action, most Americans choose conflict.

By Jodie Allen, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Experienced pollsters often find the trend in responses over time as interesting—or even more interesting—than the absolute numbers recorded. This is especially the case when dealing with controversial or novel topics, the sort of question that may tend to make respondents more likely to give what they see as the socially or morally acceptable answer rather than what they truly think.

So it caught the attention of the experts at the Pew Research Center when they noticed in an April 2009 poll that the proportion of American adults saying they thought that abortion should be legal in all or most cases had declined by 8 percentage points from the level recorded as recently as August 2008. Whereas in the 2008 poll those favoring legal abortion outnumbered those in opposition by 54 percent to 41 percent, now the two sides were essentially tied at 46 percent to 44 percent.

By Jodie Allen, Thomas Jefferson Street Blog

President Barack Obama may find little comfort in public opinion polls both at home and abroad as he considers further troop deployments in Afghanistan and using military force to confront other challenges around the globe.

Close to home, surveys taken over the course of the last several years find declining appetite among the U.S. public for armed interventions overseas. Most recently, in a Sept. 22 poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, just half (50 percent) of Americans now say that U.S. and NATO troops should remain in Afghanistan "until the situation has stabilized." This is a notable decline from the 57 percent who said so as recently as June, when 54 percent also said they approved of Obama's decision to send additional troops to Afghanistan early this year.

Resistance to military engagement in Afghanistan has risen despite that fact that in the same September survey a substantial majority of the public (76 percent) rates the possibility of the Taliban regaining control of Afghanistan as a major threat to the well-being of the United States. As the survey report notes, nearly as many regard the return of Taliban control as a major threat as say the same about the possibility of Iran developing nuclear weapons (82 percent).