Summary: All things considered, the outcome of Syria's civil war appears to be an embarrassment at best for the U.S. and the West. After all the bellicose calls for Bashar al-Assad's head on a platter and the hundreds of billions in dollars spent to train, arm and equip anyone with a pulse to help make that happen, Assad survives, his nation's sovereignty intact and Russia has established a significant foothold in the Middle East. And while this major accomplishment is essentially being ignored in the Western press, the value of this story wasn't missed by the astute observer.
