"The United States, joined by five Arab allies, launched an intense campaign of airstrikes, bombings and cruise-missile attacks against the Islamic State and another militant group in Syria Monday night – marking the first U.S. military intervention in Syria since the start of that country’s civil war in 2011.  

"U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement released early Tuesday that 14 Islamic State targets were hit, including the group's fighters, training camps, headquarters and command-and-control facilities, and armed vehicles. The operation involved a combination of fighter jets, bombers, Predator drones and Tomahawk missiles launched from the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. ... 

"The mission was not limited to hitting Islamic State positions. Centcom said that U.S. aircraft also struck eight targets associated with another terrorist group called the Khorasan Group, made of up Al Qaeda veterans. Those strikes, near the northwestern Syrian city of Aleppo, targeted training camps, a munitions production facility, a communication building and command-and-control facilities."

"NEW YORK — It's hard to make a really big protest march about just one thing. Back in the days of giant rallies against the Iraq war, all sorts of groups wanted in on the action. There were communists. Anarchists. Protesters mad about the Florida recount. Katrina justice groups. Civil rights organizations. And more. The crazy quilt of aggrieved demonstrators made it hard to keep the focus on protesting the war.

"A similar dilemma faced organizers of the giant People's Climate March, which clogged a big part of Manhattan on Sunday afternoon. ... 

"Put it all together — all the justice demanders, the tax Wall Streeters, and the spirit of Occupy symbolized by the angry pacifist — and the People's Climate March was one long, loud, loosely organized demand that vast sums of money be taken from the wealthy and given to the clients of the coalitions and alliances and networks and task forces that make up today's environmental justice movement. They've had enough of debating climate models. They want to start taking — now.

"Testifying on Wednesday to the Senate, Kerry issued a stern declaration: 'ISIL must be defeated. Period. End of story.' Not the most wisely crafted of declarations: The punctuational emphasis carried unfortunate echoes of Obama’s promise about health-care plans, and the word 'must' carried similar echoes of Obama’s assertions that Bashar al-Assad had to go. 

"But Kerry’s statement remains true for strategic and even moral reasons. But especially because when the enemy deliberately brings you into combat, it is all the more imperative to show the world that he made a big mistake."

"Americans are afraid. The White House is afraid. Democrats are afraid. 

"President Obama's 'Year of Action' has turned into a Year of Fear. The country seems mired in dread. And that could have mortal consequences for midterm Democrats. 

"New polls out this week betray a rattled public, one that is jittery about war, security, and the economy -- and one that is increasingly looking to the GOP, not the party in power. Even as the White House has sought to reassure Americans that the campaign in Iraq will be limited, that the president isn't going to act alone on immigration in the near future, and that the economy is doing better, the damage appears to be done. 

"Obama and his aides have been caught between messages: that the country wasn't going to war, until it was (sort of). That the president couldn't act on immigration, until he could, until he wouldn't (yet). That the economy had turned the corner, but not quite. (Wait.)"

"For Obama, a successful counterterrorism strategy is one that simply saves him from having to talk about terrorism. That’s the approach that led to the rise of the Islamic State. As for the 'success' in Yemen, on Monday the Wall Street Journal reported: 'Scores of al-Qaeda militants have moved into Yemen’s capital Sanaa in an attempt to exploit swelling political unrest and destabilize the government.' 

"No wonder a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds that 62 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s actions against the Islamic State, but 68 percent have very little or just some confidence it will succeed. 

"With so little confidence in the commander-in-chief, shouldn’t the president call in political reinforcements? What about the last decade should lead any American, Republican or Democrat, to trust Washington to get something like this right in a hurry? I’m rarely on the side of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, but it’s right to want a clear, stand-alone vote on war. It’s debatable whether the president needs one constitutionally (I think he does), but politically it’s a no-brainer."

"We have as close to a national consensus as possible in the war against ISIS. Polls show the public wants strong measures. ... 

"And yet Congress can’t bring itself to vote to authorize military action. President Obama doesn’t want to ask for an authorization and Congress doesn’t want to be asked. 

"Who says that no one can get along in Washington? When it comes to evading democratic accountability, the consensus is broad and deep. ... 

"So the president rummages around his desk drawers searching for a legal basis for his war, while Congress mumbles and looks at its shoes. Such are the exertions of the nation’s political branches as they embark on a long fight against an enemy of the United States."

"As the House Select Committee on Benghazi prepares for its first hearing this week, a former State Department diplomat is coming forward with a startling allegation: Hillary Clinton confidants were part of an operation to 'separate' damaging documents before they were turned over to the Accountability Review Board investigating security lapses surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. 

"According to former Deputy Assistant Secretary Raymond Maxwell, the after-hours session took place over a weekend in a basement operations-type center at State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. This is the first time Maxwell has publicly come forward with the story."

"Barring a dramatic surprise, the basic contours of this year’s Senate races are pretty much set. They will be defined by President Obama’s extraordinarily low 40 percent approval rating, a stagnant economy for those in the middle class, and the White House’s inability to tout any policy success stories that voters care about. That said, Republicans have clearly decided to play it safe and not put forward a national reform agenda similar to the 1994 'Contract with America.' If the GOP’s performance this fall is only good — as opposed to 'a wave' — one reason could be that Republicans decided to copy the Democrats’ decision to avoid controversy by not injecting ideas into the campaign."

"In his prime-time address to the American people Wednesday night, President Obama declared he would 'degrade and ultimately destroy' the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

"The goal is a sound one. And it was good to hear the commander-in-chief define a 'core principle' of his presidency this way: 'If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.' At some points, the president sounded as though he was channeling his inner Dick Cheney. ... 

"President Obama has seldom had trouble delivering a stirring speech or drawing a bright red line. But recall his own defense secretary revealed in his memoirs his horror when he realized President Obama didn’t really believe in his own strategy for Afghanistan.

"So the day after perhaps the most important speech of his presidency, the fundamental question remains unanswered: Does Barack Obama have the stomach to see his own strategy through?"

"Here's the first and last rule of Islamic jihad: If at first you don't succeed, plot, plot again.

"9/11 wasn't the first. 9/11 won't be the last. It's not 'fear-mongering' to face reality. These head-chopping, throat-slitting, bloodthirsty hijackers -- of planes, freedom and civilization -- have conspired for decades to inflict modern mass murder on the West. ... 

"Never forget: Eternal Muslim hatred of infidels didn't start with George W. Bush. Or George Herbert Walker Bush. Or Ronald Reagan. Or the creation of Gitmo. Or the birth of Israel. Or the Twin Towers. Or the Khobar Towers. Or Lockerbie. Or the U.S.S. Cole. Or Fort Hood. Or the Beirut Marine barracks bombings. Or the bombings of the U.S. embassy in Africa, the bombing of U.S. military headquarters in Riyadh and the attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi.  ... 

"Jihadist hijackers and head-choppers don't quit. Appeasement and empty threats are no deterrence. They will not stop trying to outdo 9/11 -- unless, through our deadly adherence to political correctness, apathy, amnesia, open borders and sloth, we do ourselves in first."