President Obama has a lot going on right now- healthcare reform, the financial crisis, climate change legislation… the list could go on. He took some time out to give a speech to children as they made their way back to school this week, he gave a rousing and powerful speech about healthcare reform the other day to Congress, and he will give another speech next week about the financial crisis.

Today is September 11, the 8th anniversary of the al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and Washington D.C. that killed close to 3,000 people. Obama gave another speech today and focused on what is happening now because of 9/11.

"Let us renew our resolve against those who perpetrated this barbaric act and plot against us still. In pursuit of al Qaeda and its extremist allies we will never falter,” said Obama at a ceremony for those killed 8 years ago.

The World Trade Center site itself is preparing to rise from the ashes- 4 new skyscrapers, a national museum and a memorial plaza are planned for construction there.

In his string of speeches, this one doesn’t sit as well with the American public. Or perhaps it doesn’t sit as well with me. Yes, seeking out al Qaeda and removing the Taliban from power were and are important things that the U.S. military has done. But 8 years later we, as a country, are looking at raising troop levels in Afghanistan, even after the most deadly month (August) yielded nothing new in the region.

Obama’s speech commemorated those who lost their lives 8 years ago but it also served as a call for continued support to the growing war in Afghanistan- a war that is suffering from falling national support. In some ways Obama can be compared to Lyndon Johnson- a president who inherited an unwinnable war that required more and more resources with no clear end-goal to work toward.
Obama has called the U.S. presence in Afghanistan a “War of Necessity.” For all his talk about negotiating and diplomacy he is not afraid to make war instead of love when necessary. He recently ordered 21,000 more U.S. troops as part of a new strategy along the entire Afghanistan/Pakistan area.

Congressional Democrats are not, by a long-shot, behind increasing American troop levels in Afghanistan. In fact, Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee said that the U.S. should first consider raising Afghan troop levels before sending more U.S. soldiers. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House, also said this week that she did not think there was much support for increasing troop levels in Afghanistan.

According to the Times, only 1% of Americans in a recent Gallup poll said that terrorism was America’s most important problem- with the Congressional opinion not being in favor of it and Americans not viewing it as an immediate, major issue, it seems strange for Obama to push it as one of his own projects.

We’ll see if this is something that just happens amidst the healthcare reform, financial crisis and climate change issues or if it is something that gets put off until there can be proper Congressional debate around what should be done.