<p>In the last few days, President Barack Obama has lurched from diplomatic caution to military bellicosity over what to do about the Syrian chemical attack that killed hundreds of civilians last week.</p><p>What's sorely missing in the administration's voluble discussion of the incident is a clear, compelling case to convince U.S. allies of the justification for an attack and a plan for what will happen after an attack, should Syria or its friends in Tehran or just possibly Moscow retaliate against the U.S. or its allies in the region. What if the damage to Syria's war infrastructure isn't sufficiently severe, and the Assad regime defiantly decides to double down?</p><p>The administration is scrambling for a policy on Syria. The result so far: a muddled mess. Obama, having long ago said that Assad must go and that Syria's use of chemical weapons would cross a red line, has let his desires get ahead of his willingness _ at least thus far _ to enforce them. The clumsy timeline:</p><p>_On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry all but pinned the attack on Syrian President Bashar Assad. He signaled the urgency of response.</p><p><a href="http://www.gopusa.com/freshink/2013/08/30/did-murky-messaging-lead-to-a-coalition-of-one/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/u-s-knew-syrians-were-preparing-for-chemical-weapons-attack-20130830">US Knew Syrians Were Preparing for Chemical-Weapons Attack</a> (National Journal (blog))</p><p><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/obama-strongman-article-1.1442138">Obama the strongman</a> (New York Daily News)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=dluWk9_TRWlmcGMxC8CTG-k5cBMhM&ned=us">11,982 additional articles.</a></p>