Walk-back: "I think a military attack is a mistake .... They're beginning from the wrong objective because this attack is not based on defending U.S. national security. It is not based on defending Americans or our allies, rather it is -- it is explicitly framed by President Obama, by Secretary Kerry as a defense of what they call international norms. And I don't think that's the job of our military, to be defending amorphous international norms." -- ABC News' This Week, September 8

Flip-flop type: Half-twist. Cruz has been opposed to arming the rebels in Syria, whose al-Qaeda ties he said made planned U.S. support for them "a recipe for disaster." "Don't give weapons to people who hate us," he said in June, so even given his flip-flop on using the military to prevent chemical weapons from falling into the wrong hands, one imagines an AUMF that includes greater support for the rebels, as the Senate version does in its non-binding amendments, is something he'd oppose.

Hawk: Marco Rubio of Florida

War cry: "According to administration reports and the assessments of some of our closest allies, chemical weapons have been introduced into the Syrian conflict. It's clear the 'red line' drawn by President Obama has now been crossed. The time for passive engagement in this conflict must come to an end .... We must not allow Assad to continue violating all international norms by using these vile weapons and allowing Syria to descend further into chaos and instability. This will have disastrous consequences for U.S. interests for decades to come." -- Official statement, April 25.

Walk-back: "[T]hose who argue that what happens in Syria is none of our business are wrong. And that is why I have, for over two years, urged the president to pursue a more robust engagement in the hopes of helping the Syrian people replace Assad with a stable, secular and moderate government. However, while I have long argued forcefully for engagement in empowering the Syrian people, I have never supported the use of U.S. military force in the conflict. And I still don’t. I remain unconvinced that the use of force proposed here will work. The only thing that will prevent Assad from using chemical weapons in the future is for the Syrian people to remove him from power. The strike the administration wants us to approve I do not believe furthers that goal." -- U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Sept. 4

Flip-flop Type: Backwards half-twist. Unlike Cruz, Rubio wants the U.S. to help the rebels take out Assad. So he's arguing that he opposes the AUMF because it does not go far enough, and at the same time that he's opposed to using the U.S. military directly to overthrow him. Obama's "red line" comment in August 2012 did not include a specific action plan. "We cannot have a situation where chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people," Obama said at the time. "We have been very clear to the Assad regime -- but also to other players on the ground -- that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus; that would change my equation." Rubio says the Assad regime crossed that line in April. Whatever it meant.