Britain May Regret Its Vote on Syria

When U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron meets U.S. President Barack Obama at the Group of 20 summit, they’ll surely compare notes on the challenge, 10 years after the Iraq War, of aligning public opinion behind a call to arms.

Cameron gambled last week that his Parliament would back a strike against the Syrian regime and lost. Paradoxically, Britain’s decision to stand aside may have helped to convince Obama that he needed broader support at home -- though Cameron’s defeat was also a reminder, if one were necessary, that Congress can’t be taken for granted.