Syria Skepticism Sets In

With a thin legal rationale for bombing and ghosts of bad Iraq intelligence in their minds, Western leaders are signaling some measure of caution about intervening in Syria. President Obama said Wednesday he “hasn’t made a decision,” and British Prime Minister David Cameron delayed a parliamentary vote on an intervention until after U.N. weapons inspectors report their findings. Obama plans to release detailed proof of the chemical attack Thursday. Meanwhile, top newspapers from both countries have begun to question a potential intervention; The New York Times’s editorial board wrote Thursday that Obama “has yet to make a convincing legal or strategic case,” and The Telegraph called for “complete transparency” in the decisionmaking process.