I quote Charles Krauthammer, from a January 11, 1991 column:

This is ambivalence cubed. As late as October 1941, 74 percent of Americans opposed declaring war on Germany, but 70 percent said yes when asked whether it was more important to defeat Hitler than to stay out of the war.

The polls today, like the polls of 50 years ago, show that when it comes to war, Americans want what every rational person wants: the impossible. Stay out of war -- and achieve our vital objectives. The only problem is that these goals may be mutually exclusive. It is then, when their incompatibility becomes undeniable, that public ambivalence becomes manifest.

It is then that political leadership becomes manifest too. On war in the Gulf, public opinion is torn. It issues no mandate either for war or for peace. In this condition of anguish and ambivalence, when no easy political road map is at hand, the courage to choose is the mark of leadership. The president has shown it. Congress, which has yet to, now has its turn.