If you look around the game board right now all of the people who were the architects of the Syrian war are either out of power or losing it rapidly — Hillary Clinton, Obama, Merkel, Macron, Netanyahu, David Cameron. This is why Russia’s entrance into Syria was so important. It was a moment the entire geopolitical narrative turned. Someone stood up to the U.S. successfully. Institutional confidence is based on the perception of invulnerability. And Putin moving air assets into Syria to assist the Syrian Arab Army was a declaration that Russia had reached its limit, just like with Crimea, with U.S. meddling in its long-term goals. Remember, in 2015 the narrative was ISIS just sprang up out of the desert. And they would need a full invasion to defeat. Then the Russians send in some 30 planes and change everything about the conflict within six weeks. All of a sudden ISIS was beatable. All the U.S. could do was attack Putin for going after Al-Qaeda, not ISIS. But, why were we protecting Al-Qaeda? Didn’t they blow up the Twin Towers?

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