I watched President Obama’s speech about Syria, but I missed the awfulness of it, as reported by Dana Milbank [“A steadfast commitment to . . . something,” op-ed, Sept. 11]. What I heard was a nuanced yet persuasive argument for taking action to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the barbarous act of gassing civilians and, more important, to prevent it from happening again. I also heard the president promise to use all diplomatic means to accomplish his objective, something I thought the American people — and his critics in Congress — wanted him to do.
Maybe if President George W. Bush had similarly thought long and hard about intervening in the complicated minefield known as the Middle East, rather than shooting first and asking questions later, the United States might not have spent years in a needless war in Iraq and a no-win one in Afghanistan. We are still paying the price for Mr. Bush’s lack of nuance, this time in isolationism at any cost.
Marci Greenstein, Bethesda