This crisis resolves little in Syria but says a lot about the United States

The nation is sick and tired of foreign wars, and may never play its role of global anchor again. We may live to regret it

In all the long history of US presidential addresses, has there been an odder one than this? With the solemn grandeur appropriate to a declaration of war, president Barack Obama informed the American people on Tuesday night that a congressional vote on military action had been postponed because Russia was now brokering a diplomatic initiative that might, or might not, put Syria's chemical weapons under international control. A Gettysburg address this wasn't.