So Assad gets away after all with gassing his own people?

Placard on President Truman's Desk

According to the New York Times, Obama told his staff yesterday (and the public today) that before launching missiles against the Syrian government in response to Syrian regime use of chemical weapons against their own people, he:

wanted to pull back and seek Congressional approval first. . . the most compelling [reason was] that acting alone would undercut him if in the next three years he needed Congressional authority for his next military confrontation in the Middle East, perhaps with Iran.

The President added today:

I know well we are weary of war. We’ve ended one war in Iraq. We’re ending another in Afghanistan. And the American people have the good sense to know we cannot resolve the underlying conflict in Syria with our military.

So there it is. Obama seems to be passing the buck after first promising retaliation, and positions Congress--loaded with opposition from both left and right to striking Syria--to take the hit for leaving butcher Bashar al-Assad effectively unpunished for his crimes.  It's legally sound to have Congress involved, but it's up to presidents, our commander-in-chiefs after all, to lead us into hostile territory.