A Powder Keg.

       Aleppo! Syria? Where have we gone wrong and where have we done right? I have to say, I'm disappointed in Obama's non-approach to the war in Syria, but on the other hand I do understand the idea that after a decade and nearly another half of war in the Middle-East, American's are sick to death of constant war. We want the carnage in Syria and elsewhere to stop. We want Putin to stop, but the minute an American is killed or even assigned in the Middle-East we catch holy hell for it.
       John McCain just said "We have a stake in Syria, yet we do nothing." Now that tells exactly what we've done, or not done, and its exactly what the people want, yet don't want. What Americans want is to have a peaceful victory in the Middle-East. There has never been a peaceful solution to the problems in the Middle-East since the partition of that corner of the world after the First World War and in fact going back to before the crusades, nothing peaceful has resulted in a continuing peace.
       Russia has led the way to the destruction of Aleppo and may seem to be in a position of advantage. But the history of Syria is unwritten. The Russians were triumphant in Afghanistan until they became not-triumphant. The moral of the story is that outsiders are triumphant in that part of the world for only a short time.
       Now both Putin and Trump seem to be ramping up interest in returning to a nuclear race. Is it just bluff and bluster? Let's hope so because the one thing we don't need is more and better bombs. We don't need more bad actors in the race. We've already got at least three members of the nuclear family in the Middle-East, we don't need more, especially in that region.
       The problem is that we're neither respected nor feared there and never really were respected nor feared there. They've always wanted our money but they've always hated us for our way of life and our success. They don't want outsiders trying to change the way they are, their way of life. Maybe we need to change the way we think and act towards the Middle-East.