OOPS: “The September 6 Israeli air raid in Syria has been a major setback for Russian arms sales. The Syrians had invested heavily in new Russian air defense systems, and the Israelis apparently brushed right by them. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russians have been trying to rehabilitate the reputation of their weapons. Throughout the Cold War, whenever Russian and Western (especially American) weapons met on the battlefield, the Russians lost. The Soviets tried to compete on price, but even ‘free’ was not low enough for many countries. Using Soviet weapons came to be seen as a sure ticket to battlefield defeat.”

It’s as if the whole thing is a clever scam engineered by the CIA.