The foreign policy Establishment, the military, and the pro-jihadist "humanitarian interventionists" of the liberal-left (e.g., Nicholas Kristof), went ballistic. Oh noes! You can't do that! What about Bashar al-Assad, the Very Bad Dictator who's been protecting religious minorities from US-funded head-choppers? He'll be left in power, and we can't have that! The Democrats on Twitter reacted by denouncing Trump – because wars are bad only if Republicans start them.

While the counterintuitive moral posturing of the Nicholas Kristofs of this world probably has a minimal impact on the decision-making process in the White House, the US military does indeed have a say – and they, along with their civilian allies in the sprawling national security bureaucracy, aren't afraid to contradict a sitting president. As the Washington Post gleefully reports: