On U.S. military intervention in Syria's civil war, where "both sides are slaughtering each other as they scream over an arbitrary red line 'Allahu akbar' ... I say let Allah sort it out."So said Sarah Palin to the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference. And, as is not infrequently the case, she nailed it.

Barack Obama has just taken his first baby steps into a war in Syria that may define and destroy his presidency.

As America grew in the 1800s from a republic of a few millions, whose frontier stopped at the Mississippi, into a world power, there were constant collisions with the world's greatest empire.

The thrice-promised land it has been called.

After a British soldier wearing a Help for Heroes charity T-shirt was run over, stabbed and slashed with machetes and a meat cleaver, and beheaded, the Tory government advised its soldiers that it is probably best not to appear in uniform on the streets of their capital.

No, this is not Watergate or Iran-Contra. Nor is it like the sex scandal that got Bill Clinton impeached.

"The American people are weary. They don't want boots on the ground. I don't want boots on the ground. The worst thing the United States could do right now is put boots on the ground in Syria."

"This is called slave labor," said Pope Francis.

"I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people," said Edmund Burke of the rebellious Americans.

"Whatever they thought they could ultimately achieve, they've already failed," says President Obama of the Boston Marathon bombers.