In the Wall Street Journal, Douglas Feith argues that the Obama administration is making a "fetish" of the Security Council vis a vis taking action against Bashar al-Assad's murderous regime:

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History shows that the Security Council is no touchstone of international legality. President John Kennedy "quarantined" Cuba during the 1962 missile crisis without any permission from the Security Council. Likewise without such permission, President Bill Clinton helped lead NATO's bombing campaign to defend Serbian Muslims in Serbia's Kosovo region from oppression by their own government. Mr. Obama has not sought Security Council authority for his drone-strike campaign against al Qaeda in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.

A clear case can be made that the continued existence of the Assad regime -- which has the blood of many Americans on its hands -- represents a threat to the national security interests of the United States, never mind the Syrian people. Instead, Feith argues, "However much [President Obama] regrets the bloodletting there, he considers Syria less important than bolstering the Security Council as a means of constraining American power."