How Not to Deal with Syria

Admittedly, these are difficult times for the taxonomists of Beltway zoology. So far, Republican opponents of President Obama's Syria plan have been cast in one or both of two categories: partisan flip-floppers or isolationists. Crediting GOP opponents of intervention with the possibility that they could have learned something from the mistakes of the Bush years or that their reluctance stems from the weaknesses of the administration's arguments is too implausible for many. It seems particularly difficult for some to get a radar lock on the many foreign policy hawks opposed to a Syria intervention. Neither isolationism nor partisan flip-floppery explains their reluctance.