...we now have, after the 8 miserable, misbegotten, god-forsaken years that was the bush presidency, a leader of this country who, I believe, tries his damndest to do what is right and just (in nothing more than this case, at the very least) - and I truly feel that Assad, if he did not directly order the gas attack, at least approved of its implementation - AND in the course of trying to gain a credible coalition of domestic and foreign support for his intended actions, has listened to the voices of EVERY faction, for and against his proposition, and has decided to give diplomacy more time to gain the objectives he seeks, because he saw so many are against a military solution and is bowing to their will in this matter; a very intelligent, articulate, and again, I feel, a very considerate and caring individual, that so many of us on the left side of center (and yes, I consider myself quite left-leaning...really) are now condemning him as some kind of war-mongering scoundrel who is foaming at the mouth to bomb somebody just for the hell of it - the world and their opinions be DAMNED!

I know many of you will say I am rationalizing or trying to equivocate in this comparison, but I truly shudder to think of what might be happening, right now, were we to have a certain insanely wealthy Mormon in the white house at this time...and would THAT individual even be considering the 'will of the people', the approval of congress or international accord. I know where I stand...

...I'm with the man who spoke to the people who elected him to be their president, and who, to my mind, LISTENED to those people, and to the world-at-large, and decided to to let cooler minds have another chance to achieve the goal of destroying another dictators ability to use chemical weapons on the field of war.

If I didn't believe this man to be sincere, I would not hold this position.