Our role is not to create disorder. Our role is to preserve disorder.
During the 1968 Democratic Convention police riots, somebody (probably Daley himself, but my recollection is hazy) objected to claims that police started the riots by uttering the famous accidental truth-telling malapropism that the police were on the streets not to create disorder, but to preserve disorder.
It appears, from what the WH is putting out there, that we want to degrade Assad's ability to use chemical weapons without causing Assad to fall, or otherwise tilt the balance of power in the civil war.
I am not as far left internationally as I am domestically. I have some appreciation of "realist" policy. Not total amoral "realist," but not entirely idealist.
So this is what troubles me the most... intervening in a civil war without knowing which side you want to win.
As Talleyrand said... it is worse than a crime, it is a mistake.
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