Onward into Syria, Blindly

Four days on and President Obama’s gambit of going to Congress for approval of military action in Syria is working out pretty well for him. Senator John McCain, his opponent in the 2008 campaign, is standing shoulder to shoulder with him. Secretary of State John Kerry is busy making allusions to Munich, and the skeptics in the Pentagon are keeping their doubts to themselves. The pro-bombing side is clearly on top. Ranged against it, an unlikely alliance of Tea Party Republicans, liberal Democrats, and war-weary moderates is making little progress.

But while the war party may have the votes, the skeptics still have the stronger arguments. A President who for years has been adumbrating the dangers of getting involved in a messy civil war in Syria is now leading the United States precisely in that direction. With precious little support from the American public—and without a justification rooted in international law—the Administration is about to launch a military strike on yet another Middle Eastern country with no clear goals or end game in sight. All we know for sure is that once the bombs start exploding in Syria, the United States will be inextricably tied to what happens there. That’s why McCain and other interventionists are supporting the President: they have been trying to drag him into this fight since the beginning.

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