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What the administation could do to turn around public opinion on the war in the US and to give Shia confidence that they don't have to take matters into their own hands is to put maybe 40,000 more US troops into the country and go on many largescale offensives.

The public just wants to see more then anything that we are actually kicking the enemies ass in Iraq. They don't care if we have 100,000 troops in country or 170,000. To the average American it just seems like we are just sitting there as insurgents kill us and as Iraqis kill Iraqis. We haven't had an offensive that got real coverage from the press since Fallujah. Tal Afar got alittle coverage, but it came at a time the media was focused on the hurricane and other things.

And, if the president really wants to convince the US public he is serious about winning he will take out the damn terrorist training camps in Syria with a US and Iraqi offensive. Now that would boost his numbers and save American lives you don't get a better combo then that.

"And, if the president really wants to convince the US public he is serious about winning he will take out the damn terrorist training camps in Syria with a US and Iraqi offensive."
This may simply be the true state. Surely most Americans at this point understand the problems are not just going to go away by doing nothing. The POTUS must get on the pulpit and carefully re-iterate what must be done, in a way a majority can understand.
As for more troops. It would be indicative of our failure to properly train and equipe the new Iraqi army. And though some elements of the Iraqi society may actually at this point like us and want us to stay, as well as some of their leadership, we have to face the fact. They want to run their own affairs. A constantly sticky situation at best. Be damn if you do, be damn if you don't.