Congress Sings "Obombem" in Two-Party Harmony

Dear Mr. President,
The choreographers and speechwriters are hard at work polishing talking points and lining up politicians. The play is about to begin. McCain and Graham first. Deference to old warhawks, recalcitrant Republicans vowing a Nay vote on a limited strike; demanding regime change. You meet, assure them that “limited” is flexible, expansive, includes air strikes, rockets, missiles, who knows what. They fall in line, they’re good to go. Now Boehner, Cantor and Pelosi, House leaders sing in two-party harmony—they’re good to go, too. Faithful party hack Pelosi adds that she doesn’t think Congressional approval is necessary. Shredding the Constitution is a bipartisan sport. She also declares the August 21attack “outside the circle of civilized behavior.” Is raining 216 cruise missiles on a country that poses no threat to America within the circle of civilized behavior? All day, Hagel and Kerry work Congress and one legislator after another is “satisfied,” “reassured,” “comfortable.” You found the one issue with bipartisan support—war. An unclassified report, “Government Assessment of the Syrian Government’s Use of Chemical Weapons on August 21, 2013” released Friday is on the White House web site. “We assess with high confidence” and “U.S. government assessment” dominate the report but there are no details, no proof and no evidence. It’s clear the intelligence came from those old reliable assessors, the CIA and the ever-truthful NSA. The more I read the less convinced I was and then I came to this: “We assess that the opposition has not used chemical weapons.” But UN inspectors reported they have and I think maybe Putin et al, is right, that the chemical attack was not from the military but an accident by rebel fighters who received chemical weapons from Saudi Arabia and didn’t know how to handle them. Of course, “national security” prohibits revealing details: no names, no maps, no photos or videos, no transcripts of calls, nothing that might convince a reasonable person. And then there’s the moral issue. You’re right to be outraged at the photos of dead children, victims of the attack. But your outrage is selective, Mr. President, absent when the children killed are victims of American drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen or Afghanistan. Is it okay to kill children with Hellfire missiles or cruise missiles or 50-caliber machine guns from helicopters and C-130 gunships but not okay to kill them with chemical weapons? Is there really a moral difference?