Asked and answered

The invaluable Walter Russell Mead deals with the rhetorical questions:

As Clausewitz reminds us, the goal of force must be political. Is President Obama trying to bomb Assad to the bargaining table? Weaken him enough so that he gets on a plane to retire in Sochi? Bomb him just hard enough so that Assad only massacres Syrians in the many ways that don’t involve testing President Obama’s red lines? Can Assad kill another 50,000, 100,000 or more Syrians as long as he keeps his hands off the chemical weapons? The President needs a goal in Syria for bombing to be more than an act of moral pique; it’s not clear that he has one.

More, a lot more, at the link.