I suppose this Diehl column is valuable for what it doesn't express - compassion for the victims in the region. Yes, sure, it has the obligatory charge that Assad "appears to be stepping up its own bombing raids against the nonextremist opposition" but even that is just part of the chess game. It isn't that Assad is hurting people, it's that he's hurting the opposition.
The true hole in Obama's Syrian policy, if we actually give a shit about anything except our endless futile attempt to rig the risk board, is failing to take in refugees or even spend the money so other countries can. That's the true hole in the souls of all of the pundits who claim to care about the poor civilian populations (which, to his credit in some sense, Diehl barely does).
We will help with our love bombs. And when that doesn't work, we'll love bomb some more.
