Obama's Making His Biggest Mistake Yet

Noted Barack Obama superfan Andrew Sullivan thinks that the president's attempt to launch an attack on Syria is "impulsive, foolish, reckless" and "easily his biggest misjudgment since taking office," he writes at the Dish. Yesterday's narrow Foreign Relations Committee vote proved that even if Obama wins congressional approval, it won't be by much, and the polls show the public is solidly against the war. As it should be. "The US has no vital interests at stake in the outcome of a brutal struggle between Sunni Jihadists and Alawite thugs. None."

But something good could still come out of this for the country. If Congress tells Obama no, and he acquiesces to that rejection, we'll "have truly made a first, proud step in reining in the too-powerful executive branch" and "re-balancing the presidency away from imperialism." Obama simply can't drag the country to war. "He is not a dictator. He is a president." (Click for Sullivan's full column.) For a dissenting view, check out Clive Crook's defense of action at Bloomberg. "It's a close call," he writes, but the taboo against chemical weapons is "morally right and valuable to the US and the world." (More Andrew Sullivan stories.)