Somebody needs to throw a bucket of cold water on President Obama and his "lead from behind" cohort of foreign policy advisors.  The few White House national security staffers who see what's happening to American power and prestige in the Middle East have finally gone public with their alarm at the direction of our foreign policy. Politico: Vladimir Putin’s intervention in Syria is creating new rifts inside an exhausted and in some cases demoralized Obama national security team, where officials pushing for bolder action see the president as stubbornly unwilling to assume new risk as he nears his final year in office. Current and former Obama officials say the president’s reluctance to respond more assertively against Putin is signaling U.S. weakness and indecision. “We’re just so reactive,” said one senior administration official. “There’s just this tendency to wait” and see what steps other actors...(Read Full Post)