Pray our elected officials make the right decision on Syria

If you Google the phrase "Indecision is the hallmark of mediocrity," you'll likely come up empty.

That's because it was a conclusion on the business world I concocted many years ago.

As I watched businessmen run their operations, it was those who were willing to make tough decisions -- some unpopular -- who succeeded.

Indecisive executives would ponder and stall and weigh their options while their competitors would "pull the trigger" on a situation and move forward.

More often than not, the indecisive manager would fail.

The federal quagmire concerning military action in Syria reminds me of that business motto.

Our national indecision puts us squarely on the road to mediocrity.

Without the president's widely reported "red line" on the issue of chemical warfare, our options would be greater.

But this administration elected to take a strong public stand and now we've painted ourselves into an awkward corner with limited support at home or abroad.

We either play the hand we've dealt ourselves or we fold.

Perhaps this march to Syria will become a "teachable moment" for this administration.

But I fear we've backed ourselves into a lose-lose situation.

As Congress and the American people weigh our options, you just get the impression that this latest showdown will end badly.

There's a stark distinction between protecting American interests and trying to intervene in the internal affairs of a civil war thousands of miles from our shores.

This same argument has been made in countless situations through the years.

Too often, the outcome has been less than favorable for the United States.

The question in Syria is not about military might. We clearly win that argument.

The question is about the appetite of the American public for another conflict in a land most Americans couldn't find on a map.

And now, we rely on our elected officials to decide a tough question that could reverberate for years.

Our best option -- and perhaps our only option -- is to pray they make the right call.

Michael Jensen is the publisher of the Sikeston Standard Democrat.