The sudden collapse of the Assad government in Syria after 53 years of frequently brutal oppression and many years of civil war is a triumph for Israel, a severe defeat for Iran, and a strenuous slap in the face for Russia. Almost the whole world was refreshed when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump posted on social media, ”This is not our fight” and with respect to the possible expulsion of Russia from Syria he added: “There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place.” It illustrates once again that it is unwise to become too dogmatic about categorizing people as terrorists too morally odious to treat seriously as legitimate representatives of anybody. President Carter’s national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, famously said to the mujahidin fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the late 1970s ”Your cause is right and God is on your side!” as the U.S. armed them with sophisticated weapons including anti-helicopter rockets that proved very effective. Fifteen years later the United States led a large international coalition in deposing the same people as the government of Afghanistan and 15 years after that President Trump was so heavily criticized for inviting what are now the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan to the presidential country home at Camp David that he rescheduled the meeting to an urban location. The same people or their direct successors were the beneficiaries of scores of billions of dollars of military hardware abandoned behind in Afghanistan when President Biden abruptly withdrew from that country three years ago.