Ukraine is at war with Russia? Surely not, do you really think this 'special military operation' might escalate that badly? In any case I don't believe there ar

Ukraine is at war with Russia? Surely not, do you really think this 'special military operation' might escalate that badly? In any case I don't believe there are any NATO troops currently in Ukraine, not officially anyway. Western military aims in Syria are not to change the regime, they're just to support allies and suppress enemies like IS. There is no way US operations in Syria could possible be described as seriously attempting to topple Assad or drive Russia out of the country, that's simply not tenable. As you point out, US and Russian forces, when in the same vicinity, backed off from each other. As Ukraine amply shows when one side, either the west or Russia, heavily commits militarily to a country the other side limits itself to interference operations only. That's been true ever since the Cuban missile crisis. Nobody wants a repeat of that.