"And he made little sense given that his recommendation was to nuke Damascus or some such."
Damascus is not a legitimate target if you're trying to take down Syria? I disagree.
Nuking Mecca strikes me as a bad idea.
What if Muslims nuke the Vatican? An Algerian attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II. (Historical footnote, but true, nonetheless.) Where is the line in the sand? Washington DC? Boston, NYC? LA, Denver, Chicago? Or six or seven at once? There has to be some outrage we won't put up with. No?