Choose Your Battle

Ilan Goldberg says this was the most important result from yesterday's ABC Iraq poll:

Do you think the U.S must win the war in [Country] in order for the broader war on terrorism to be a success, or do you think the war on terrorism can be a success without the U.S. winning?

Iraq: 34% must win. 60% can succeed without it
Afghanistan: 51% must win. 42% can succeed without it

Frankly, I'm skeptical that expressed public opinion on such fine-grained questions as these is all that significant. John McCain will argue that we can "win" (whatever that means) both if only we put our faith in his leadership. The question is how credible do people find that.