Is It in My Head?

When refugees are stuck in refugee camps, get turned back from Europe {or any other nation}, or suffer discrimination upon arrival, it helps to make ISIS's point for them. It gives the impression, rightly or wrongly, that Europe really is hostile to Muslims.

ISIS's attacks on Europe {or any other nation}, whether by design or not, could thus serve the group by deepening the backlash against refugees.

"Having this wedge driven, where [ISIS] is able to intensify the backlash against refugees might help with recruiting efforts by extremists to recruit among the refugee population," Gartenstein-Ross says.

"Game it out from their perspective," he continues. "If they were able to move operatives into Europe {or any other nation}, posing as migrants and refugees, then that's a major win for them," both as an act of terror and to increase anti-refugee sentiment in Europe {or any other nation}.

“Instead of reacting to these events with the haste and recklessness they deserve, the President has chosen to waste valuable time thinking,” McCain said. “This goes against the most fundamental principles of American foreign policy.”

Graham also expressed frustration with the President, telling reporters, “The American people are waiting for President Obama to do something stupid, but their patience is wearing thin.”

In his most withering criticism, McCain called Obama’s “stubborn refusal to do stupid stuff” a failure of leadership. “If I were President, you can bet your bottom dollar I would have done plenty of stupid stuff by now,” he said.

During the meeting, the military officials mention that, despite official claims to the contrary, foreign troops from NATO powers were already on the ground in Syria. “After a couple hours of talking, they said without [saying] that SOF [Special Operations Forces] teams (presumably from the U.S., UK, France, Jordan, Turkey) are already on the ground focused on recce [reconnaissance] missions and training opposition forces.”

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar Assad has "lost all sense of humanity," and President Barack Obama has called the attacks in Syria "horrifying."

Italy recalled its ambassador from Damascus this week. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said: "The Government has been trying to keep the world blind about the alarming situation in the country by refusing access to foreign journalists, independent human rights groups and to the fact-finding mission mandated by the Human Rights Council."

Still, no official action was taken by the world body.

"The shadow of Libya hovers over the (Security) Council," Stephane Crouzat, press spokesman of the French Mission to the U.N., told CBS News on Tuesday evening.

Just minutes later, Vitaly Churkin, the Russian Ambassador to the U.N., emerged after two days of negotiations to say that there was no agreement.

Churkin said Russia's view, shared by several members of the Council, was that the proposals on the table were "too far reaching," and that "the required balance has not been achieved in the course of the discussions and the current shape and form of the text may not play a constructive and positive role which we would like to see the Security Council play."

Calling it "time wasted," Churkin said there have been a "number of ideological things that took our attention away from the necessary impact from the proper message from the Security Council."