President Barack Obama rejected U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s urges to launch secret missile attacks inside Syria without the United States admitting responsibility. In recent months and without success, Kerry has sought to get Obama’s approval for cruise missile strikes against the Syrian government. Kerry’s strategy in promoting the Syrian peace negotiations in recent months was based on much heavier pressure on the Assad regime to agree that President Bashar al-Assad must step down than was apparent. Kerry, in fact, has been the primary advocate in the Obama administration of war in Syria ever since he became Secretary of State in early 2013. Several times, Kerry urged Obama to strike missiles at “specific regime targets,” in order to “send a message” to Assad – and his international allies – to “negotiate peace.” Kerry suggested to Obama that the U.S. wouldn’t have to acknowledge the attacks publicly, according to Goldberg, because Assad “would surely know the missiles’ return address.” Obama not only repeatedly rejected Kerry’s requests for the use of force, but also decreed at a National Security Council meeting in December that any request for the use of military force must come from his military advisers in an obvious rebuff to Kerry. Immediately after Kerry had [...]