[Rockstar]

Thinking about the fleet heading to Syria sort of reminds me of Lincoln's actions at Fort Sumter.

If he abandoned the fort, he jeopardized the Union by legitimizing the Confederacy...

However, if he could induce southerners to attack Sumter, "to assume the aggressive and thus put themselves in the wrong in the eyes of the North and of the world." By sending a relief expedition, ostensibly to provide bread to a hungry garrison, Lincoln turned the tables on the Confederates, forcing them to choose whether to permit the fort to be strengthened, or to act as the aggressor. By this "astute strategy," Lincoln maneuvered the South into firing the first shot."

http://www.tulane.edu/~sumter/Reflections/LinWar.html