Earlier tonight President Obama spoke to the American people about the situation in Iraq and Syria and about how the United States is going to deal with it. A few weeks ago, I would've been confused and thought "Okay. That seems like a good plan." Now, after a scant four weeks of graduate education, I know far too much about the situation in that area!

The president really didn't say anything in his speech - he said we must support the opposition. Which opposition? There're about 4 major groups that are in opposition to the Syrian government. One of them is ISIS...so maybe we won't choose to support that one. I assume we're going to be supporting the Free Syrian Army (which may or may not actually be a cohesive organization), but we could also be supporting the Islamic Front or al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda! What fun!

Why are we choosing to intervene in this situation? Is it because of the executed journalists? As my professor pointed out today, people die in shady ways in foreign countries all the time, and this would be a dangerous precedent to set.

Then the president just kinda said 'MURICA! for five minutes. (I was counting. I needed to get to the public library before it closed at 9...which I did.)

Also, I would like to say that Bob Schieffer's tie was excellent.

AHHHHHH! I GOT ALLEGIANT FROM THE LIBRARY!!!!!

There was a lunch for all the Master's Degree students and faculty from my department. We ate Panera and all had to introduce ourselves. It was pretty nice - I got to see the Diplomat in Residence, which is a State Department program that puts former diplomats at universities for a year. There's going to be a reception to welcome him tomorrow, which I'm planning on attending as well.