lefty stars align

Britain, with conservative Prime Minister David Cameron at its head, will not back the US in a planned military effort in Syria. Meanwhile France, led by über-leftist President François Hollande, will back the US, led by our own fearless leftist leader, President Barack Obama. It's interesting to see France and the US in warm agreement on the topic of military intervention; it's not wild speculation to think that France might have temporarily dropped its contrarian impulses because it thinks it's standing with a kindred spirit. Of course, you could counterargue that Britain's "no" doesn't come from David Cameron himself: it comes, rather, from Parliament. But if you look at the demographics of Britain's Parliament, you see right away that it's fairly well-stocked with conservatives. Can there be any denying that ideology has much to do with both Britain's and France's current alignment?

UPDATE: a bit of Glenn Reynolds-style snark on the matter:

PRESIDENT UNILATERAL: Obama Set for Limited Strike on Syria as British Vote No. Good thing we got rid of that dumb cowboy Bush, who unilaterally invaded Iraq with like 40 other countries.

UPDATE: “Cluster bombs won’t solve this clusterf***.” “Obama has boxed himself — and us — into a corner. Having demagogued issues of presidential prerogative and the need for U.N. approval in the past along with other Democrats, but having set a red line, he (we) are damned if we do, damned if we don’t.”

That must be more of the “smart diplomacy” we were promised or something.

Related: Obama ready to move on Syria without allies. It’s a good thing, since we don’t seem to have many of those left . . . .

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