(Russian Defense Ministry / Handout/European Pressphoto Agency)This week Russian bombers flew out of Iranian air bases to attack rebel positions in Syria. That’s what results from the nuclear deal with Iran, the evacuation of Iraq and utter U.S. immobility on Syria. According to a Baghdad-based U.S. military spokesman, there are 100,000 Shiite militia fighters operating inside Iraq, 80 percent of them Iranian-backed. Dealt a very weak hand — a rump Russian state, shorn of empire and saddled with a backward economy and a rusting military — he has restored Russia to great-power status. The major revisionist powers — China, Russia and Iran — know what they want: power, territory, tribute.

Source: Washington Post August 18, 2016 23:26 UTC