because that is congress' congressional prerogative. and you know what? the united states did not start a war in syria. even after all those members of congress were screaming that we ought to. we did not get involved militarily in syria because congress not only didn't vote to do it, they never took it up. they don't want to actually put their money where their mouths are. they just want to carp about it. when it came time in syria, they did not want to take a binding vote on what to do, they preferred to just yell about it on tv. when president obama called the question, it was over. under the constitution, congress is actually required to get out of the armchair and make binding decisions on military matters. we are seeing the worst of the armchair quarterbacking right now on bowe bergdahl and on the benghazi arrest and on iraq. but if you want to see this debate get much better really fast, if you want to see our foreign policy politics in washington get much less petty, not tv talking points, not self-contradictory chicken price partisan diversions. right? if you want to see this become