At a minimum, it tells us that the creeping internationalization of the Syrian civil war has reached a new and dangerous level. Leaders can use incidents like the Syria deaths, or even more minor provocations, as an excuse to escalate war. You can see one such technique in Russia’s statement that private military contractors were killed in Syria: The government is distancing itself from the dead. First, very few incidents are like the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, quickly exploding from local to international — and leaders can shape what happens, as the United States and Russia just did with the Syria incident. A gloomier lesson is that knowing such techniques can invite leaders to meddle overseas, confident that a dangerous clash can be defused.

Source: Washington Post February 20, 2018 09:56 UTC