Here the absurdity of the phrase “War on Terror” is on full display. President Assad is undoubtedly a “terrorist,” ruthlessly suppressing a rebellion that has taken an estimated 100,000 lives on both sides. He is being aided by the Hezbollah and the government of Iran, Shia Muslim coreligionists identified as “terrorists” by the U.S. government. He is fighting an alliance of primarily Sunni Muslims, so this conflict amounts to more hostilities in the centuries-old schism between the two main Islamic sects. The rebel alliance includes al Qaeda, also on the government’s list of terrorists, whose leader Obama went to the trouble of murdering. The government is engaged in all sorts of semantic and logistical contortions to maintain the illusion that none of our aid to the rebels will go to our al Qaeda enemies, but money and arms are fungible and some of both will almost certainly fall into the hands of that group. Absent from the rebel alliance are any Thomas Jeffersons, and we have zero assurance the rebels, if ultimately victorious, will be any less repressive than Assad. They certainly will not set up a model western-style democracy, if Egypt and Libya are any guide, and they may well set up a full-fledged Islamic state.