The Group of 20 has concluded its meetings and dinner discussions of what to do about charges that Syrian President Bashar Assad has used poison gas to kill more than 1,400 of his own people.

France, Britain, Turkey, and Canada expressed varying degrees of support for U.S. President Barack President Obama's call for military action, while Russian President Vladimir Putin called U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry a liar and claimed that the evidence against Assad is inconclusive. Russia and China insisted that the United States cannot take action without approval from the United Nations Security Council, where they will veto any such move. From the sidelines, the European Union and Pope Francis warned that no "military solution" is possible in Syria.

In other words, it all went exactly as expected. The Americans, French, and others continue to push the Russians to accept that Syria's government has used chemical weapons; the Russians, anxious to protect their Syrian ally, reject the evidence as inconclusive; and the carnage continues. The focus of the fight now moves to the U.S. Congress, where a rare coalition of liberal Democrats and isolationist Republicans will try to block the president's plans.