to try to secure votes in favor of military action in syria, how are all these other agenda items being affected? >> i think that all of it serves to do one thing. that is undermine support for any sort of military action in syria. i think that -- first of all, law makers would far rather deal with some of those other issues than to get into something like this. the other point is the issue of costs. another important point molly brought up in her report about the fact that you don't get to choose how long a war is. you don't get to choose a cessation of military action. only your enemy gets to choose that. if syria decides to go to war against us or if iran decides to get involved and start firing missiles at our troops in the mediterranean, are we not going to respond to that? of course we are. these pledgees -- they are not even real pledgees. they are quasi-pledgees about no