War

ISIS commander trained by US while in Georgia special forces was fighting for US as recently as 2013.

Eric Margolis tells the truth.

"The West’s objective in Syria was to overthrow its government, because it is closely allied to Iran, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Russia.  President Bashar Assad’s secular government in Damascus is just managing to hold off the rebels and mobs of fanatical jihadists sent by the Saudis and Washington – which pretends to be fighting the Islamic state. In fact, the Islamic State, or IS, is a tacit American ally.
Astoundingly, it appears that few in Washington’s power circles appear to have imagined that US machinations in Syria would eventually provoke a Russian response."

Same with Ukraine.

"Why can the US have military bases in  places like Djibouti, Okinawa, Diego Garcia, Uganda, Somalia, Qatar, Afghanistan, South Korea, Bulgaria, Japan, Italy, Romania, Pakistan, Iraq and Spain, to name a few, while it’s a big no-no for Russia to dare have a very small base in Syria?
Because the Empire says no.
Russia’s military budget is one tenth that of the United States.  Combined with its rich allies like Europe and Japan, the US accounts for 70% of world military spending.   The only real threat Russia poses to US security will come if Washington’s ham-handed blundering in Syria, Iraq and Ukraine provoke a direct clash with Russia’s military forces.  The West is fortunate to have the cautious, sober Vlad Putin in the Kremlin.  He has already averted a US-Russian war in Syria and is calling again for direct US-Russia talks on the growing crisis.
But did anyone really think that the very tough Putin would do nothing while the US and its allies tore Syria apart?
How stupid and arrogant was this.  Imperial hubris married to arrant ignorance."

Right again.