Ben Rhodes

Yeah.

Because sometimes people – it was interesting because people didn't like Libya because we intervened there but then didn't like our Syria policy because we didn't intervene there and thought that we should have done something to stop Crimea.

Yeah.

And it's that Crimea piece that is – I would always tell people, how were we going to stop them?

Do you want to go to war with Russia over that?

And by the way, by the time we learned that it had happened –

It had happened.

I say that because part of it is accepting the limitations of control, right?

That sometimes bad things happen in the world.

Say that again.

Say that again.

Say that again.

We need to accept limitations that we can control events.

And to actually, to get your question about why you're not stopped, Libya is an interesting example because there's a way that we might be able to stop this.

In Libya, we actually got the UN Security Council resolution.

We did not get an authorization from Congress.

And interestingly, when Obama was under pressure and frankly inclined himself to bomb Syria after a chemical weapons attack in 2013, the infamous Red Line incident, what he did is he went to Congress and said, OK, if you wanted me to do this, you need to authorize it because that's what the Constitution says.

And Congress would not vote to authorize it.

Marco Rubio, who had been castigating Obama for his weakness and passivity and not attacking Assad, came out and said he would vote against congressional authorization.

Because members of Congress know that war is ultimately unpopular because it costs money, it can cost American lives, and it's just bad.