Not surprisingly, the "Syrian crisis" has been virtually the only thing the US television media has been reporting on. Secretary Kerry just finished an interview with "All In"'s Chris Hayes. Kerry wasn't saying anything new - just repeating the same talking points and call to arms he's been repeating the past week to the American people, the media, the Senate, the House ...and it seems as though in the Hayes interview there was an edge of frustration in his voice as he says for what seems like the thousandth time "there will be no boots on the ground" and "this is not Iraq."

No shit. As if this situation being different is all the justification needed for lobbing in a few missiles on the Syrians.

It seems like the bottom line in Kerry's narrowly scripted declarations is "Trust us on this one." He can offer no evidence (surprise: it's all classified); he can't speculate on the outcome of US military intervention in Syria (but it's the right thing to do); he can't explain exactly why intervening in Syria is in the interest of "national security" (but it is); can't comment on why the international community doesn't seem to be as gung-ho as he is for a military strike (even though that community is as repulsed by the use of chemical weapons as the US is).

And he seems frustrated that for all his efforts, he doesn't seem to be convincing anyone that this is a good idea, no matter the degree of "high confidence" he has that al-Assad gassed his own people.

In retrospect, perhaps (ironically) George W. Bush's greatest legacy is that after his inept prosecution of the Iraq war, America was reluctant to fall in lock-step with the next cowboy diplomat that says the answer to all our foreign policy problems is "let's go bomb something."