There's a war on in the Middle East. The struggle is long and frustrating. Although the Western coalition wins every battle, victory is elusive. The public is losing its patience. Prominent supporters have quit the war effort. The opposition demands withdrawal. The commander in chief turns to religion for comfort.

You know, of course, what war I am referring to. No, not that war: I mean the Trojan War. The mythical conflict between Greeks and Trojans over the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, has a lot in common with the war in Iraq today.

And, as archaeology increasingly reveals, the Trojan War probably really did take place, around 1200 B.C., although there was a lot more at stake than a runaway bride. Freedom, security, and control of resources were all in the balance.

George Bush should brush up on his Homer. The blind bard knew all that a poem can say about a weary war. In "The Iliad," in fact, he founded western literature with the story of an army on the verge of a breakdown.

Homer is a classic poet. The epic sweep of the Trojan War flows in his words, just as the tragic grandeur of the heroes underlies his lines. But Homer's real greatness is something simpler: He is never wrong about suffering. The old masters never forgot to say how hard things once were and, in the cycle of human events, they will be again. All we have to do is read them.

Take the plot of "The Iliad." This epic poem begins after nine long years of war. For all this time the Greeks have camped at Troy, hoping to sack the city, loot its wealth, and bring back Helen, who had run off with a Trojan prince. In spite of various successes they seem no closer to their goal.

In a public argument, the Greeks' leader, Agamemnon, humiliates his best general, Achilles. The hotheaded hero comes close to killing Agamemnon in return. (Fortunately, American Gen. Eric Shinsekei went more quietly when his pre-war advice was derided.) Achilles deals Agamemnon a crushing blow nonetheless: He pulls himself and all his men out of the war. Today's defections from the war party by William F. Buckley and George Will are nothing in comparison.

After Achilles storms out, Agamemnon decides to test his men. He expresses doubt about whether the gods are on the side of the Greeks after all; maybe it's time to give up and go home. He expects his men to shout "no!" but Agamemnon is in for a shock. The Greeks practically stampede each other in a rush to the ships.

By comparison, the president's current doldrums in the polls are minor. But his resources are less than Agamemnon's. The Greek king had the day saved by Odysseus (aka Ulysses), who represented a heroic triple-threat of cunning, eloquence, and prowess. Almost single-handedly the hero stems the tide of retreat.

Dick Cheney is a good man, but he is no Odysseus, and neither is Don Rumsfeld. Yet the president can learn lessons from Agamemnon's example even so. Two things stand out.

First, it is perfectly normal for a free people to feel frustrated by a long and indecisive war. What was true of the Greeks is even truer of Americans. The reason is that we look at war completely differently than the ancients did.

For the Greeks, war was a god. War was Ares (the Roman Mars). That is, war was personal and glorious. Nowadays, war has become business. We Americans in particular tend to approach war as a business problem, if a bloody and awful one. And that is why Americans are so good at war. We don't let glory, status, or grandeur get in the way. We prefer to operate like engineers, manufacturers, and accountants.

This approach worked brilliantly in such past conflicts as World War II or the Cold War. We out-produced Hitler and Tojo. We spent the Soviet Union out of existence.

Suitably modified, it will, I think, work in the end in the current conflict as well. But it doesn't look that way in much of today's press. Signs of progress--democracy in Iraq, the rout of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the thwarting of major terror plots--are often overshadowed by the red ink in the ledger.

Which is the downside of our businesslike way of war. Business does not find it easy to think about the long term. Lengthy, frustrating campaigns without a quick, clear and profitable bottom line are a hard sell to the shareholders.

The same is true for Americans at war. We want a favorable bottom line and we want it fast. Both Vietnam and Korea lost popular support--and destroyed presidencies--because they were drawn out and inconclusive. The public was more steadfast during World War II, but Americans began winning big only six months after Pearl Harbor, at Midway in June 1942. The Civil War, with all its disappointments and slaughter, nearly lost the support of the Northern public. For that matter, the Revolution itself brought Tom Paine's warning about "the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot" who might abandon the long, hard cause.

This brings us back to Homer and his second lesson for the Bush administration. The Greek generals did not restore the men's morale simply by preaching patience, recalling the enemy's crimes, or appealing to the national sense of honor. Instead, they did something else that was much more effective: They fought. Here is what happens:

Odysseus turns on the leading Greek dove. He is a man named Thersites, whom Homer calls "the ugliest man who came to Troy" (sorry, Jack Murtha). Odysseus tears him apart verbally and then beats him with the royal scepter. The Greek troops break up laughing.

Meanwhile, Agamemnon loses no time in taking advantage of his men's changed mood. He immediately calls them out to battle. Roaring approval, they rush to arm themselves and to march on the enemy. A hard day lies ahead for Troy.

Now, the Bush administration should not lay a glove on its domestic opponents. Rather, it should debate them with arguments, facts, and yes, with humor. As for the enemy, they require the same thing as the Trojans: a good fight.

If the American people are turning against the war in Iraq it is not from fear of fighting. It is because they know that counting the bomb victims in Baghdad is no way to win a war. Americans are willing to do battle. But if the government offers nothing but patience while the enemy is on the march, the public will call it quits.

To be sure, Agamemnon's offensive failed to take Troy. And a single American push is unlikely to yield victory in Iraq. But unless American troops take the offensive, public support will not be there when the day comes to build a Trojan Horse.