President Obama’s foreign policy is at a crossroads: Despite his efforts to mold his years in the White House around a U.S. exit strategy from the Middle East, for the second time in three years, the president has delayed U.S. military action in the region only to find himself with few options but to intervene later.

A chemical attack in Syria has clearly violated Obama’s red line warning to Syrian leader Bashar Assad last year that such an assault would force a recalculation of his decision to keep the U.S. military out of the Syrian civil war.