Shout Out for the Vocal and principled Anti-WAR Left.

[DirkGently]

88. It is a political failure to request a war you do not get.

Sorry, but no amount of your babbling about game theory will change that.

Obama did not obtain public support for a strike. That's a failure. A happy one, but a failure.

Obama did not obtain Congressional support for a strike. That's another failure. Again, a good thing.

Of course he knew it might not go his way. But knowing it might not go his way doesn't mean it magically went his way.

And it's not a zero-sum game. If at the end, he pulls out a positive result like a non-violent compromise, it's a success. I've seen no one question that. Leaders adapt. They recognize when one door is closed, and look for another way out.

Like a compromise brokered by Russia.

But there is no way you're going to talk anyone on the planet into your idea that having the public and Congress both reject a proposal for war in Syria went according to plan. That was not the plan. The plan was not for America to tell Obama he could not have a war in Syria. That is not a plan that a politician makes.

What you need to do is reconcile yourself with the notion that it's okay for Obama to not always be in control. He is not a failed leader because he could not achieve war in Syria. He is a smart leader because he recognized that and (it appears so far) is willing to go another way.

Savor that. It reflects well on him. But the war thing was a fail. Sorry?