So, Turkey is happy. They are celebrating. Why? Because the Syrian government is winning battles.

Stop and think about that for a second. Read it again if you have to. The Turkish government, which spent years talking about how evil the Syrian leadership was, is now cheering them on. They are watching the news and clapping. It sounds insane. It sounds like something a crazy person would make up. But it is real. This is how the world works now. There are no rules. There are no principles. There is just pure, ugly hate.

Here is what is happening. The Syrian government launched a big attack. They went after the Kurdish-led forces. These are the same Kurdish forces that did most of the heavy lifting against the really bad terror groups a few years ago. The West loved them back then. We put them on TV. We called them heroes. We gave them high-fives. But that was then. This is now. Now, they are in the way.

Turkey hates the Kurdish forces. They hate them more than they hate the Syrian government. They hate them more than they hate almost anything. So, when the Syrian army rolled in and started taking over towns from the Kurds, Turkey didn't get mad. They didn't warn about "human rights" or "democracy." No. They smiled. They saw their number one enemy getting beat up by their number two enemy, and they decided it was a good day.

This is what passes for strategy these days. It is not chess. People always say global politics is like chess. It’s not. Chess has rules. Chess makes sense. This is just a bunch of angry toddlers in a sandbox hitting each other with shovels. The only difference is that the shovels are tanks and real people are getting hurt.

Think about the leaders involved here. You have the Turkish leadership. They play both sides of every fence. One day they are friends with Europe. The next day they are friends with Russia. One day they want to topple the Syrian regime. The next day they are glad the regime is strong enough to crush the Kurds. They don't care about being consistent. They don't care about looking like hypocrites. They only care about winning the moment.

Then you have the Syrian government. They were supposed to be out. The whole world said they had to go. But they are still there. And now they are taking back land. They are proving that if you just stay in your chair long enough and have big enough guns, the world will eventually get bored and let you do what you want. They waited us out. They waited until the West got tired and distracted. Now they are cleaning house, and their neighbors are letting it happen.

And let’s look at the rest of us. The West. The "civilized" world. What are we doing? We are watching. We used the Kurds when we needed them to fight our battles. We let them bleed for us. But now that the map is changing again, we are nowhere to be found. We are looking at our phones. We are pretending we don't see what is happening. It is shameful. But it is also predictable. This is what big countries do. We use people like tissues and throw them away when they get dirty.

Turkey celebrating this offensive is the perfect symbol of our times. It shows that there is no such thing as a permanent friend or a permanent enemy. There are only temporary conveniences. Yesterday’s monster is today’s useful tool. Yesterday’s hero is today’s problem.

The Kurdish forces are losing ground. The Syrian government is raising its flag. And Turkey is nodding along, happy that someone else is doing the dirty work for them. It is cynical. It is cold. It is brutal. And nobody in charge seems to lose a minute of sleep over it.

So don't look for the good guys here. There aren't any. Don't look for the moral high ground. It was bombed flat years ago. Just look at the map. The lines are moving. The people with the biggest guns are making the rules. And the politicians are laughing while everything burns. That is the reality. The rest is just noise.