"Is the U.S. president free to wage a war? What is his leeway with respect to public opinion? The question of the influence of public opinion on military interventions is essential to understanding post-Cold War and post-9/11 conflicts; interventions often characterized by their long duration in distant countries with unclear strategic interests. If public opinion is often ready to give the President the leeway to embark on a military intervention, the public's tolerance is difficult to maintain in the long term when the troops are on the battlefield and victory appears difficult to define and achieve. In order to maintain public support as long as possible for interventions far away from Americans' day-to-day concerns, the United States often adapted its military strategy and tactics to the detriment of the desired objectives. As a result, and contrary to the predominant literature, this qualitative study concludes that public opinion often had a major impact on military interventions"--