Syrian dictator Bashar Assad is this century’s preeminent war criminal. The man is a monster, bombing entire cities to smithereens and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians in the process of routing his armed opponents. President Trump wanted to do something about it.

During a television appearance this week, Trump reminisced about how he wanted to send a missile straight on Assad’s forehead. “I would have rather taken him out. I had him all set,” he told Fox News. He added shortly after that his defense secretary at the time didn’t support the assassination attempt. “[James] Mattis didn’t want to do it. Mattis was against most of that stuff.” The entire episode reminds one of the Cold War period, when taking out a leader Washington thought was in the pocket of the Soviets was just another tactic of the CIA.