The Syria Resolution

[J. J.]

No war for oil!

They don't have any oil. 

[J. J.]

They pretty clearly don't know whether or not Assad himself ordered the weapons to be used.

I'm not sure why that matters? He's still responsible. And it's public knowledge that the Syrian army has been using chemical weapons (but against rebel fighters) for months now, presumably with his blessing.

It does matter.  If there was some commander in the field who took it on himself, it becomes problematic.

Part of the plan is to degrade Assad's command and control functions.  Do you really want a few other field commanders to decide to launch them since they can't get orders? 

[J. J.]

Considering the way Assad normally deals with dissent if it was a rouge officer who ordered it then said rogue officer would be gunned to pieces within hours. Has that happened yet?

Something tells me that Assad is not on Twitter.

There has been some suggestion that it was not authorized by Assad.  That is one of the reasons why I think this is problematic.  If this was a command and control problem, the one thing we don't want to do is make it worse. 

[J. J.]

It will pass the Senate and maybe even the house. Both sides are falling in line. Even if it doesn't, I think Obama will strike anyway, which I like. It's beginning to remind me of my boy dubya.

Just to be clear, I think Obama has the constitutional authority to strike.  I think it is a bad decision in this case.