When a president gets a little, chances are he'll take a lot

Some members of Congress say they’ll support a limited strike on Syria. But this is a fantasy. It relies on limiting two things that naturally defy limit: war and presidential power.

War cannot be tamed. War might turn out according to plan (for everyone who didn’t get killed or maimed) but that’s largely a matter of chance. Men cannot control war — not even with the greatest military ever; not even with chants of “Yes We Can;” not even with a Nobel Peace Prize.