But if he simply announces, before the election, exactly what he will do effective January 1 , 2015 and give the lame duck Congress "one last chance" to pass comprehensive reform before year end, he will be following more or less the same pattern that Lincoln used with the Emancipation Proclamation (with a stronger war-powers underpinning to begin with).
He defended the country's third nuclear test in February, which led to a new United Nations security council resolution tightening sanctions, telling listeners: "Our nuclear weapons have served as a strong war deterrent to defend our national security and sovereignty".
But CIJA is hoping to build the strongest war-crimes case since Nazi officials were tried at Nuremberg.
The local Kodava people, believed to be descendants of Alexander the Great's Indo-Greek soldiers who mingled with the natives, have a distinct warrior-like upbringing: instead of praying with the fires and chants common among Hindus, Kodava rituals have strong war-like elements, including the symbolic use of a sword to chop banana stems during weddings.
Something similar might be said of this highly engaging book, which is stronger on war storytelling than on political analysis, but perhaps wiser than its subjects in recognizing that.
Locke shot back, "If I wrote strong during war times it was only because I must".
In the strongest passages, war's radical cognitive dissonance comes to vivid life.
He escorted Turkish dignitaries to Capitol Hill to warn that the resolution threatened to destroy a strong Iraq war alliance.
His new book, The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics and the Endgame in Iraq, has just been released by Random House.
The world changed and as far as personal impact goes the ripples were just as strong as war.
