I guess my Q is...
"anything less than a military strike looks like backing down"
We're not 9 years old on the playground... it's more important to save american lives, than to "save face" for a bunch of idiots that hate us already. they used WMD on people, a mass slaughter. Obama geared up for war. People didn't want war. Syria agreed to give up the WMD.
The goal of bombing them would have been to... remove the WMD. It would have been splattered all over or moved to new locations before the bombs fell. This way - we get them all. UN inspectors will inventory then destroy it.
In the end, if an enemy to america committing human rights atrocities loses all their WMD - and the only cost is "obama looks bad", I'll take that as a win. Cause I really don't care what syrians think of us. Do any of you give a rats ass what some idiot living in a hut on the other side of the world says about Obama?
We WIN here. The WMD will be removed. We stood up when the rest of teh world would not, and Syria is gonna give up the WMD. Without firing a single shot. I know it doesn't match the macho dick-measuring contest, I know obama looks like shit because people say so... but he's the leader of the USA... WE DONT SWING DOWN. Whatever some jackoff reporter in UK or beggar in Russia thinks of our leader, doesn't really bug me.
WMD removed. No loss of US life. Where's the fail, again? (Aside from "obama looks like shit haha, pwn3d, haha, oh shit, obama sucks, oh shit, look, he's from kenya".