“We’re not going into Syria,” says a guy who will be remembered for–more than anything else–his fantastic lies. It won’t be his buildings, it won’t be his billions. It’ll be birtherism, it’ll be a campaign and a presidency overflowing with baldfaced lies.

The problem here of course is that the Liar in Chief is one of the few who is, imho, making anything resembling a sensible noise. Haley seems to be doing her best to put American feet on Syrian soil, and Tillerson is on the verge of having to give back his “Buddy of the Russian Empire” medal. It’s all been too much for Spicer and the poor sot has gone insane. (If Trump is the new Hitler–and we all know he is–then Spicer is the new Hess. I’d call Bannon the new Goebbels, but since the latter is dead and can’t defend himself from such an outrageous charge, I’ll refrain from the comparison.)

But anywho, now Russia’s drawn its own red line in Syria. It’s put a finger in America’s chest and said “you will not do that again.” I don’t know if Trump’s ever stared down the barrel of a gun before–I mean, it wouldn’t surprise me–but that’s where he finds himself now. And Vlad the Triggerman is probably thinking “I could shoot a missile at Fifth Avenue and not lose a single supporter.”

Whatever the true purpose of America’s strike on Syria–a warning to Assad, a diversion from the Trump-Russia investigation–it also served as a test of Putin’s resolve. We have his answer, which is “stay out of Syria.” I don’t think testing him again would be in America’s interest.

If we really want to help the Syrian people, we’d accept Syrian refugees…but then, Americans aren’t really interested in helping anybody, we just want someone to bomb.