21 November 2015 - political sense

In fighting the Islamic Self-Indicated State, Obama follows a principled strategy of limited intervention with limited aims, which he calls robust intervention with conclusive aims, opening space for his opponents to accuse him of half-baked half measures. It all makes political sense, which is the opposite of sense. If Paris terrorism creates pressure for full measures, well, that may be OK; many strategies are plausible. Just so long as we don’t pick a strategy that makes political sense.