A funny take from Robert Shrimsley as he imagines an aide and the president discussing current options:
Obama: Shouldn’t we be helping democrats against a brutal dictatorship?
Aide: Are we sure they are democrats, Mr President?
Second aide: Didn’t we do this meeting last month?
Aide: That was Egypt. . . or Tunisia.
Obama: Well, that seemed to work out; what did we do then?
Aide: We positioned ourself carefully behind the curve and immediately backed whatever had happened the day before. It was cost-effective and it worked, sir. Your strategy of protracted hesitation has paid dividends in a number of theatres.
Obama: David Plouffe prefers to call it the evaluate-and-decide strategy.
Aide: I apologise Mr President, I thought that was our Afghan strategy. I understood we’d moved on to an “evaluate and then evaluate some more” strategy here.
Of course, the alternative to "evaluate and decide" is to "trust your gut and invade." Politics is never pretty.