When people say “it gets worse before it gets better,” this isn’t what they mean. Earlier in the month Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the major powers in Syria had agreed on a ceasefire in the Syrian civil war. As CBS News reports, that ceasefire is scheduled to go into effect on Friday, but the chance of that happening has grown slim. The United States’ relationship with Turkey has been put on edge after a car bomb killed 28 people in that nation. Turkey’s government blamed a Kurdish group of attacking its homeland, and asked the U.S. to officially label the group a terrorist organization. Only problem, the U.S. funnels weapons to that Kurdish group to help it in the fight against the Islamic State.

But the Kurds and Turkey aren’t the only two U.S. allies that have turned on each other in the region. Recently, a video surfaced that showed Syrian rebels armed by the U.S. fire an American missile at Kurdish fighters — not quite the weapon’s intended purpose. As National Review’s David French notes, the U.S. is essentially at proxy war with itself, thanks to the confusing tangle known as Mid-east politics — and Obama’s failed policies. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strategy in Syria is winning out because he offers stability. Yes, Russia is propping up a failed despot, but Obama’s “smart power” would only create a vacuum where rival factions reduce Syria to rubble and terror metastasizes.