President Obama’s speech that was originally intended to convince Americans of the need to hit Syria with airstrikes morphed into something else following the rise of a potential diplomatic solution (or at least delay). George Packer sums up the moment: “White Houses don’t do this sort of thing, but the speech probably should have been cancelled, because it no longer served any purpose. The President spoke to the nation because he said he would.”

+ Buzzfeed: 7 reasons destroying Syria’s chemical weapons will be a lot harder than you think. (I don’t know anyone who’s said they think it will be easy.)