How easily could we have ended up in, not necessarily a better, but a much, much different place than where we are? This is a really interesting moment, because barmer himself thought that it was, in some sense, the most significant moment of his presidency. And i think what's really interesting is that if you look at the sequence of events by which it happened, it's a series of accidents, really. So i think that it isn't just hat there's a path not taken in the syria war itself’s,. It's also that there's really important russia that becomes the way in which accommodation with russia in the middle east becomes the path right at