From Abigail Hall, writing in The Beacon this morning regarding President Obama’s plan to arm “moderate” Syrian rebels:

Syria’s regime is unfriendly to the U.S. The country is in the midst of an ongoing civil war with a death toll considered tragic on any margin. But the idea that the U.S. can arm rebels and keep weapons in “responsible and moderate” hands is unfounded in theory and practice. If the U.S. were to send weapons to Syria, there are no guarantees how such weapons would be used, who would ultimately possess them, or how such an arrangement would change conditions over time. If Afghanistan and other U.S. ventures into the Middle East are any indication, there is a very real possibility that weapons sent to protect U.S. interests today could be used to threaten them tomorrow.

A good word. Where I’m skeptical, though, is whether what President Obama says is what President Obama does. I usually avoid foreign policy debates for this very reason–foreign policy is hopelessly complex and so much of it is conducted in secret. How do we know the information we get from the media reflects what’s actually happening on the ground? We’re all in the dark, really.