Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, “who ushered the U.S. into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003, said the Obama administration has not clearly justified an attack on Syria,” The Hill reports.

Said Rumsfeld: “One thing that is very interesting, it seems to me, is that there really hasn’t been any indication from the administration as to what our national interest is with respect to this particular situation.”

However, in an interview with the Newhour, Obama cited “America’s core self-interest” as one justification.

The New York Times says that Russia’s suspicion of President Obama “only intensified after his decision to scuttle a planned summit meeting next week in Moscow and to describe Mr. Putin in unusually personal terms at a White House news conference, saying his body language often made him look ‘like the bored kid in the back of the classroom.'”

“Though Mr. Obama went on to say that their interactions were often constructive, the comment infuriated Mr. Putin, according to one Russian official not authorized to be quoted by name.”

McKay Coppins: “The rapidly-approaching conflict in Syria has begun to draw a deep rift between two sides of a Republican party that have long been drifting apart over foreign policy, pitting the hawkish holdovers of Bush-era neoconservatism against an ascendant libertarian wing that opposes humanitarian intervention.”

“As the Obama administration beats the war drum — calling the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons against its own citizens a ‘moral obscenity,’ and insisting intervention is the only acceptable response — Republicans are scattered all over the philosophical spectrum, without a clear set of talking points, let alone a unified worldview…”

BBC: “Police in Russia have confiscated a painting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in women’s underwear from an art gallery in the city of St Petersburg. The artwork depicts President Putin combing the hair of the prime minister.”

First Read: “Regarding the likelihood that the Obama administration will use force — and perhaps soon — against the Syrian regime for its reported chemical-weapons attack, what we’re watching is to see how clear President Obama makes this goal to the American people. There’s no doubt the White House has been trying to lower expectations by not calling for regime change. But isn’t it the administration’s policy for regime change? After all, Obama has called for Assad to step down.”

Roll Call: “Dozens of House Republicans and a smattering of Democrats are demanding President Obama get congressional authorization before ordering attacks on Syria, but no lawmaker seems to have an answer for what they will do if Obama goes ahead anyway.”

The New York Times reports Obama is preparing for “limited” military strikes against Syria which may last just a day or two.

The Week: Has Obama already doomed the Syria mission to failure?

If you think you know what President Obama should do or not do in response to the Syria crisis, read George Packer‘s excellent take.

Wonk Wire: This means war?

“Before American fugitive Edward Snowden arrived in Moscow in June — an arrival that Russian officials have said caught them by surprise — he spent several days living at the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong,” the Washington Post reports.

Secretary of State John Kerry said the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons against civilians was a “moral obscenity,” delivering the clearest indication yet that the Obama administration is preparing to attack President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Kerry: “Make no mistake: President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world’s most heinous weapons against the world’s most vulnerable people.”

New York Times: “Kerry’s remarks, in a prepared statement he read at the State Department, reinforced the administration’s toughening stance on the Syria conflict, which is now well into its third year, and he suggested it was moving closer to a military response in consultation with America’s allies.”

Edward Luttwak: “It would be disastrous if President Bashar al-Assad’s regime were to
emerge victorious after fully suppressing the rebellion and restoring
its control over the entire country… But a rebel victory would also be
extremely dangerous for the United States and for many of its allies in
Europe and the Middle East. That’s because extremist groups, some
identified with Al Qaeda, have become the most effective fighting force
in Syria.”

Politico:
“There’s never been more pressure for President Barack Obama do
something about Syria. And there’s never been less consensus on what he
could do, or should do.”

The Hill:
“U.S. intelligence officials bugged the United Nations headquarters in
New York, according to a report from a German publication. Operatives
from the National Security Agency were able to decode the UN’s encrypted
e-mail system and hack into the organization’s closed video
teleconferencing system to track communications by UN members, the
report by Der Spiegel said.”

Wonk Wire: How the NSA bugged the United Nations.

Jeffrey Goldberg looks at U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, published a decade ago, for clues on her views about the problems in Syria.

“I pulled the book off the shelf last night, and was reminded that it is brilliant, a carefully written, deeply researched indictment of American indifference in the face of atrocity. And I realized that the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria must be driving Power mad with frustration — frustration, of course, with Bashar al-Assad’s killer regime and frustration with the international community (so-called), in particular the Russians, who will do almost anything to protect the regime from censure, but also frustration with those in the administration who have spent the past two years looking for ways to distance the U.S. from the horror.”

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds that Americans strongly oppose U.S. intervention in Syria’s civil war and believe Washington should stay out of the conflict even if reports that Syria’s government used deadly chemicals to attack civilians are confirmed.

Key findings: About 60% surveyed said the United States should not intervene in Syria’s civil war, while just 9% thought President Obama should act.

First Read: “The likely chemical attack in Syria, seen as the worst in the world in possibly two decades, and the coming release of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak from house arrest this morning, begs the question of whether the Arab Spring is over – and whether the autocrats and dictators have won.”

“Complicating matters is that there are no good options in either country, and there is no consensus on what Obama should do… The Middle East continues to be bad choices between standing up for ideals versus a form of stability that might not always live up to democratic ideals. And the U.S.’s No. 1 ally in the Middle East is Israel, and, for now, they are in the stability first camp. They are quietly relieved the military is in charge of Egypt and when it comes to Assad, there are plenty inside that country that are of the mindset, better to have the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”

The United States “has ‘strong indications’ the Syrian government employed chemical weapons in a series of attacks Wednesday in the suburbs of Damascus, in what would amount to a serious escalation in poison-gas use in the conflict,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Washington Post editorial: “The United States should be using its own resources to determine, as quickly as possible, whether the opposition’s reports of large-scale use of gas against civilians are accurate. If they are, Mr. Obama should order direct U.S. retaliation against the Syrian military forces responsible and adopt a plan to protect civilians in southern Syria with a no-fly zone.”

Josh Rogin:
“The U.S. government has decided privately to act as if the military
takeover of Egypt was a coup, temporarily suspending most forms of
military aid, despite deciding not to announce publicly a coup
determination one way or the other, according to a leading U.S. senator…. The office of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the head of the
appropriations state and foreign-operations subcommittee, [said] Monday
that military aid to Egypt has been temporarily cut off.”

A new Pew Research poll finds that 51% of Americans think aid to Egypt should be cut off and 50% think President Obama’s response has not been tough enough.

New York Post: “Five years after Caroline Kennedy refused to release financial information during her bid to take over Hillary Clinton’s US Senate seat, newly filed documents reveal a personal fortune that could be as high as $500 million.”

Kennedy had to file disclosure documents for her nominated role as Ambassador to Japan.

Bob Kerrey is in talks to be the latest former senator to get a post at the State Department, Politico reports.

Said Kerrey: “I’ve had conversations with them about taking on a project.”

Kerrey wouldn’t discuss what the “project” would be, but stressed that the position wouldn’t be full-time.