I think you still have your finger on the pulse. This is the issue of the moment (along with taxing Amazon). Trump has already canceled the CIA’s covert funding of “rebel” groups in Syria. Tillerson allowed the moment of Kurdistan’s statehood to come and go without recognition, thereby denying Israel a nascent non-secular ally in the right-to-exist department; preserving at least the notion of Iraq’s territorial identity, and removing yet another reason for dismembering the still conscious Syria.

That Syria’s standing still as a consequence of the Trump administration vexes all the right people — or should I write all the wrong people. There are reports from Syria that the U.S. is withdrawing. If we have time to mull this over, some respect and appreciation for Russia’s role might be in order. How to present that in a way that’s not threatening to the people Caitlin mentioned in her article is the question.

In terms of second-guessing the future, it might be safe now to conclude that the proxy war strategy has failed this time at least; and that the next step, if there is to be one, involves a full frontal direct assault, a war effort with an order of magnitude larger than W’s, difficult to imagine. Imagining a rapprochement, with praise for Russia’s role when merited; and remorse for ours — from covert funding and support of the mujaheddin in Afghanistan on out — also seems hard to imagine, but worth the effort.