Given that the US had made an unbelievable mess of its Mideast policies, the president is right to pause and think, something his shoot ?from- the- lip Republican critics rarely do. They are demanding the US attack both Iraq and Syria without asking "what then oh brave Washington warriors?" These are the Republicans who ardently supported George Bush's catastrophic invasion and destruction of Iraq.

The problem is that too many cooks in Washington are spoiling its Mideast soup. In his magnificent new book, "The Sleepwalkers," Prof. Christopher Clark of Cambridge describes how World War I was in part ignited by small numbers of anti-German officials in France, Russia, Serbia and Britain who often undermined their own government's moderate policies.