WASHINGTON POST
How America can counter Putin’s moves in Syria
by Condoleezza Rice and Robert M. Gates
October 9, 2015

…Let us also realize that hectoring Putin about the bad choice he has made sounds weak. The last time the Russians regretted a foreign adventure was Afghanistan. But that didn’t happen until Ronald Reagan armed the Afghan mujahideen with Stinger missiles that started blowing Russian warplanes and helicopters out of the sky. Only then did an exhausted Soviet Union led by Mikhail Gorbachev, anxious to make accommodation with the West, decide that the Afghan adventure wasn’t worth it…The Russians know their objective very well: Secure their interests in the Middle East by any means necessary. What’s not clear about that? READ MORE