What is there to say? No matter what presidential candidates tell us, if elected, they're going to support these wars. And they're never going to tell us the real reasons behind them, so we're just left here to stew. Doing whatever you want without an honest explanation isn't a great way to promote democracy, either at home or abroad. Via the New York Times:
WASHINGTON — American forces took advantage of the airstrikes against the Islamic State extremist group in Syria to try to simultaneously wipe out the leadership of an unrelated cell of veterans of Al Qaeda that the White House said Tuesday was plotting an “imminent” attack against the United States or Europe.
The barrage of bombs and missiles launched into Syria early Tuesday was aimed primarily at crippling the Islamic State, the formidable Sunni organization that has seized a large piece of territory to form its own radical enclave. But the blitz also targeted a little-known network called Khorasan, in hopes of paralyzing it before it could carry out what American officials feared would be a terrorist attack in the West.
American military and intelligence analysts were still studying damage reports from the initial air assault, but senior Obama administration officials expressed hope that they had killed Muhsin al-Fadhli, the leader of Khorasan and a onetime confidant of Osama bin Laden. The officials said they had been contemplating military action against Khorasan in recent months, but President Obama’s decision to hit the Islamic State’s forces inside Syria provided a chance to neutralize the other perceived threat.
Several officials said Khorasan had an advanced plan for an attack involving a bomb that could pass undetected through airport security systems, perhaps by lacing nonmetallic objects like toothpaste tubes and clothes with explosive material, although officials offered no details in public and did not provide specifics on how soon an attack might be carried out.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said the concerns about Khorasan were behind a decision last summer to ban uncharged laptop computers and cellphones from some United States-bound commercial airliners.
