Middle East Zugzwang

... will be for their involvement in combat operations. It is unclear to many, but not to members of the US-led coalition. The US State Department described as “insulting” the very comparison of the Russian-Syrian operation to liberate eastern Aleppo with the American operation in Mosul. In its view, the fact that Russia supports the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, while in Iraq the operation is carried out by a “coalition of 66 nations,” which enjoys “broad support and legitimacy in the international community” ...