My reluctance to embrace Obama's plan is not because of "blind partisan hatred".  My reluctance is because (a) I'd like to not continue to repeat past mistakes and (b) I really have no firm idea what we are actually doing or why we are doing it, and worse I don't have confidence that Obama does either.  His own cabinet appears conflicted and in disarray and so does the collective messaging and the means.   And the harsh reality is Obama is not trustworthy even to his own promises.  He has said A LOT of things to get elected, and he is doing A LOT of things which are the exact opposite...and by that I mean just like Bush and often to a greater degree.  Congress, both parties, is politically in a position to be damned if they do and damned if they don't in terms of keeping their own jobs, so this whole situation just seems absent of grown ups. 


You asked the question "what if we just said no"...the implication being doing nothing, correct?   Does that mean literally nothing (military, intelligence, weapons, $$$, diplomacy) or do you mean just no air strikes?   And what would you suggest we do if/when we are attacked from a nation state or those working from base of operations in a nation state?  Or one our allies?   


Here are two pieces I read this morning, and I'd love to hear what some of you think of these opinions.  The first is Krauthammer:

Our real Syria strategy — containment-plus
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-our-real-syria-strategy--containment-plus/2014/09/25/dd8828b2-44e9-11e4-9a15-137aa0153527_story.html