One might have thought that well into

his second term, President Obama and his foreign affairs team would finally have mustered the courage to demonstrate some intelligent leadership on the Middle East. Sadly, from the endless counterproductive drone strikes on Yemen, to the cowardly closure of our embassies across the region, to our hypocritical inaction on Egypt’s coup, the administration’s regional policy has been a shambles.

Now, as if we’ve learned nothing from the Iraq and Afghanistan debacles, comes news that the Pentagon has been instructed to plan for military strikes on Syria. Not since President John F. Kennedy’s brain trust pulled us into the morass of the Vietnam War have “the best and the brightest” been so disappointing.

Chris Hennemeyer Bethesda, Md.