As to the other main thrust of what he's saying (supporting Assad as the lesser of evils... like you know, back in the good old days of the anti-Hitler coalitio

As to the other main thrust of what he's saying (supporting Assad as the lesser of evils... like you know, back in the good old days of the anti-Hitler coalition): let's just say things are "a bit more complicated" than the way he presents it. And that he's side-stepping some very important things -- the atrocious human rights record of the regime he'd like us all to throw our weight behind [1]; (this is time-traveling a bit, but) the conduct of own armed forces[2] in that country since that speech (for example, their use of cluster munitions, against those some UN conventions he claims to hold so sacrosanct); and this little bit of unpleasantness [3] (NSFW). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_violations_during_the_Syrian_Civil_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_violations_during... -- especially the part about "According to various human rights organizations and the United Nations, human rights violations have been committed by both the government and the rebels, with the "vast majority of the abuses having been committed by the Syrian government". [2] "Russian airstrikes have killed around 3800 civilians, about a quarter of them children" -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_military_intervention_in_Syria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_military_intervention_... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghouta_chemical_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghouta_chemical_attack [NSFW]