MY fellow Americans, I’m speaking to you tonight because, at my orders, the United States has begun punitive strikes against the forces of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. There’s a formula to this kind of address: some references to the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding inside Syria’s borders, some nods to the international community’s support, some claims about the threat the Assad regime poses to American interests, and finally a stirring peroration about freedom, democracy and human rights. But it’s my second term, and I’m awfully tired of talking in clichés. So let’s be frank: Striking Syria isn’t going to put an end to the killing there or plant democracy in Damascus, … Continue reading Ross Douthat