Syrian war

Palmyra Proves Assad is the Lesser Evil

It’s been a rough week for Islamic State’s make-believe caliphate.

Word on Friday was that the United States military had killed the terrorist group’s second-in-command. In Iraq, government forces inched closer to the crucial ISIS-controlled city of Mosul. And in Syria, regime troops entered Palmyra, which Islamic State captured last year.

Palmyra’s liberation has been months in the making. The Syrian government started bombing ISIS positions there last September, but the black flag continued to fly, as much of the government’s attention remained focused on other targets like Aleppo. Bashar al-Assad’s strategy from the beginning has been to destroy rebels from groups like the Free Syrian Army first, as they control territory adjacent to him and are backed by many Western countries, including the United States. The Russian campaign in Syria, allegedly to fight terrorism, focused most of its firepower on the “moderate” rebels rather than ISIS.