Come again? At a Senate hearing Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry appeared to equivocate when asked whether there would be American boots on the ground in Syria. Kerry said at one point he wouldn't "take off the table" the idea, nor any other military actions. However, pressed on his answer—which contradicted previous public statements—Kerry clarified that he was only "thinking out loud." "Let's shut that door tight as we can," he insisted. Not acting at all on Syria, the secretary said in closing, would turn America into “spectators of slaughter.”