It was a time filler: The White House had asked for the time and had to fill it. But at this point in the president’s Syria drama an indifferent piece of work only underscores the overall impression that things just aren’t working that well in the White House…

Another problem, and there’s no nice way to say this: It is hard to believe such a chill man has such warm feelings about the sad end of strangers far away. I think this has been one of his big unspoken problems in the selling of his Syria policy. It is based to some degree on his emotional indignation, and it is not fully credible because it’s hard to believe he’s so moved.

On the policy: A problem with the limited, targeted strike or strikes that he speaks of is that nobody knows—literally, nobody knows—exactly how strong Bashar Assad is. Nobody knows what position he is really in. A man who uses weapons of mass destruction may simply be a monster. On the other hand he may be a monster who has reason to fear he’s losing. He may be a vulnerable monster. And a targeted strike not meant to take him out, may take him out. Which will summon a new version of hell.