The arguing we're now seeing about Syria in this country does little to move me off my belief that no one in Washington knows what we should do there; at best, they know the public position they should take to improve their own chances in the next U.S. election. I don't know what we should do and I'm very glad that I don't have to have an opinion. My default when the issue of going to war comes up is: "No, we shouldn't." I think history has shown that that would have been the best course of action on most occasions when we did. So I think I'll stick with that even if it does put me on the same side as those who wanted to go to war in Iraq and were dead-wrong in every single one of their predictions and even their facts.
If you find the whole matter confusing — and clearly, many in Congress who'll be voting on it are clueless — here's an article by Max Fisher that gives the simplest possible explanation of why there's all this chaos in Syria and how there's really nothing we can do to make it better. Warning: The simplest possible explanation isn't all that simple. And that may be a large part of the problem right there.