Is this the barren Syria strategy for which Aaron David Miller, a distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center and former State Department official, rebuked the president just two days ago?
As Mr. Obama considered new strikes, the White House began its diplomatic campaign to enlist allies and neighbors in the region to increase their support for Syria’s moderate opposition and, in some cases, to provide support for possible American military operations. The countries likely to be enlisted include Australia, Britain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
The NY Times' overview of President Obama's "diplomatic campaign" strikes me--does it not you?--as shades of George H.W. Bush's multilateralism, which over the past couple decades has earned enormous (retro)respect among foreign-policy analysts uncontaminated by KristolThink. Yet in Miller's pop analysis, it is "seemingly devoid of strategy" and little more than a "feel good" approach to "blowing up a bunch of very bad people."
Speaking of blowing up a bunch of very bad people ... all that is left for my politically martial satisfaction is for Obama to approach our brayingly dysfunctional Congress for expanded airstrikes authorization.
Rats, ship.