From the beginning it should have been clear that Syria was never an all or nothing situation. There has always been room for compromise. One clear sign has been Moscow's position. Its foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, has experience and common sense — more so perhaps than his U.S. opposite number. His frequent calls for moderation should have been taken more seriously.

But that has not been the only reason for reining in our "bomb Damascus" hawks. From the beginning there should also have been doubts about whether Damascus even caused the sarin gas attack. Why would it want to use chemical weapons if this could invite U.S. intervention, and when it already had the full air control needed to attack enemies when and where it wanted? And why should we ignore the very real possibility that other parties to the Syrian conflict were responsible, hoping to produce just the reaction from the United States that we saw?

Examples of "false flag" attacks being planned or used to justify outside, mainly U.S., military interventions have a long history — all the way from Operation Mongoose plans to destroy an allegedly passenger-filled aircraft and so justify an attack Cuba in 1962, fictitious Tonkin Gulf attacks to justify escalation of U.S. intervention in the Vietnam civil war, alleged atrocities in Kosovo, perhaps even the 9/11 events (we still do not have explanations for many mysterious aspects, including the seemingly controlled demolition collapse of World Trade Center Building Number 6).