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The Enemy of My Enemy Is My... Russian Friend?

Mark Wilson
/
Getty Images
US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter speaks about the Middle East including recent Russian airstrikes in Syria during a news conference at the Pentagon September 30, 2015 in Arlington, Virginia.

Violence has cropped up again in the Middle East in recent days, as Russia has carried out military strikes against ISIS, which opposes of Syria's ruling regime. ISIS also opposes the United States, so you might assume our government would be in favor of those military strikes. But as with everything involving the Middle East, the reality is a lot more complex.

"I actually feel that there is a lot that's positive for our national interest, in no way defending the immorality of the regime. But in the real world, we have to deal with governments even today that are not ideal," says foreign policy contributor Art Cyr.

Art Cyr is a professor of political economy and world business and director of the Clausen Center for World Business at Carthage College in Kenosha. 

Arthur I. Cyr is Director of the Clausen Center for World Business and Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College in Kenosha. Previously he was President of the Chicago World Trade Center, the Vice President of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, a faculty member and executive at UCLA, and an executive at the Ford Foundation. His publications include the book After the Cold War - American Foreign Policy, Europe and Asia (Macmillan and NYU Press).