RUSH: Now, Syria. Let me see if I can make sense of this for you. ‘Cause what’s happening in Syria, based on what we learned yesterday about Putin — and what he said to the UN about us abandoning our role, our moral leadership there — as best I have been able to assemble this, here is what’s happening. Over the past few weeks we have learned that Russia is sending military planes and soldiers to Syria. We didn’t like it. When asked about it by the United States, Russia said, “Mind your own business; it’s none of your business. What are you gonna do about it?”

They, of course, knew we were gonna do nothing about it. Then at the UN Vladimir Putin announced that Russia was gonna take the lead in fighting ISIS because we had given up, essentially. The Western world had decided it wasn’t worth it, it wasn’t worth the risk, that we had abandoned our moral leadership. Putin at the UN says, “Do you realize what you’ve done?” So he decided to swoop in and single-handedly take the lead in fighting ISIS, which Obama still will not refer to as a terrorist or Islamic extremist group.

Now, that was supposed to explain Russia’s military presence in Syria, that Putin was taking three-day in fighting ISIS. That is a key point in understanding what’s going on here. Our secretary of state (who once served in Vietnam) John Kerry — Jean-Francois Kerry — and Obama said they were open to the idea of Russia — and, by proxy, Iran — joining the fight against ISIS. Now, in Putin’s mind, we haven’t joined anything; we are abandoning it. This is also key to understand. In Putin’s mind, what he said yesterday at the UN, we have essentially checked out of the hotel.

And they’ve checked in, and they are single-handedly fighting ISIS. So Kerry, in a face-saving move, goes out and says, “We are open, of course,” as though we’re still the world’s lone superpower, which we aren’t because Kerry and Obama don’t even want to be. Kerry goes out and says with his “superpower secretary of state” attitude that we’re perfectly fine. We’re open to the idea of Russia and Iran joining the fight against ISIS, when in truth we have abandoned it. Last night there were reports that Russia had warned us to get all of our planes out of Syrian airspace because they were going to mount an attack.

Now, I don’t know how it is in this administration, but any previous administration, if a Soviet leader had called and warned us to get out of Syrian airspace, we would have had some choice words for the Soviet leader, and we would have told him, “You don’t dare launch your aircraft or else.” But we’re not dealing with administrations like we’ve had in the past. Putin (essentially Russia) warns us to get all of our planes out of Syrian airspace. We scoffed at the warning. This morning there were reports that Russia had indeed conducted its first bombing mission.

And this is what CNN was all excited about. It’s been practically wall-to-wall news this morning on CNN that Russia had indeed done its first bombing mission in Syria, ’cause everybody assumed he was bombing ISIS, ’cause that’s what he said he was gonna do, and we had welcomed it. “Oh, sure! You want to join us in the fight against ISIS? Head on in here, Vladimir. We’d be happy to have you and the Iranians come in and partner up with us.”

Except Putin threw a change-up curveball and didn’t attack ISIS. No, no, no. This is where it gets really, really interesting. They didn’t bomb any ISIS targets. Instead, Putin and Russia bombed “moderate” rebels that are our allies. (laughing) I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh. Russia targeted “moderate” rebels that are supposed to be our allies fighting ISIS, and all this time we welcomed them in, under the premise that they’re gonna join us in hitting ISIS targets.

Putin comes in, but he doesn’t hit ISIS targets. He hits our allies, the so-called moderate rebels. There are now unconfirmed reports that Russia hit a CIA-vetted moderate Syrian rebel group that was receiving US anti-tank missiles. So instead of Russia targeting ISIS, which they led everybody to believe they were gonna do and which we welcomed them to do, they hit a moderate rebel group that the CIA had vetted and told Obama they’re us, they’re our allies, they’re good people, we can partner up with ’em. That’s who Russia hit.

So the Russians hit these moderate rebels because they, the moderate rebels, want to bring down Assad even more than they want to defeat ISIS. And Putin does not want to get rid of Assad. And nor does Iran want to get rid of Assad. So while we thought Russia was coming in to bomb ISIS, and we’re creating the illusion or operating under the illusion that we are doing the same thing, they hit our allies.

This is serious, serious stuff. And Kerry, here, grab sound bite 25. This is Kerry. They’ve been running around all day today trying to get comment from Russian and American officials about this. This was at the UN this morning, Security Council meetings on counterterrorism, John Kerry spoke about the battle against ISIS and these Russian air strikes in Syria, and here’s a portion of what he said, and I’ll characterize it after you hear it.

KERRY: If Rusia’s recent actions and those now ongoing reflect a genuine commitment to defeat that organization, then we are prepared to welcome those efforts and to find a way to deconflict our operations and thereby multiply the military pressure on ISIL and affiliated groups. But we must not and will not be confused in our fight against ISIL with support for Assad. Moreover, we have also made clear that we would have grave concerns should Russia strike areas where ISIL and Al-Qaeda affiliated targets are now operating — are not operating.

RUSH: Well, that’s exactly what they’re doing, Secretary. They’re attacking targets where our allies are operating, not ISIL. So if Russia’s recent actions, we’re prepared to welcome them. Our people are clueless here, sadly, is what it seems like and don’t know how to react to this. So the best they can do is to go out and act like Russia is following through on what it said it was gonna do. This whole statement from Kerry sounds like it’s predicated on his belief that they’re hitting ISIS. First half of this statement, he thinks they’re hitting ISIS.

He knows they’re not. He’s trying to tell anybody listening, “Hey, they’re hitting ISIS. We agreed to it and we’re all-in for ’em, but if they veer from this then we’re gonna have a sit-down with ’em.” That isn’t gonna happen. The only reason Putin’s doing any of this is because he’s confident as hell we’re not gonna do anything about it. What is this deconflict anyway? And to find a way to deconflict our operations and thereby multiply the military? We are so, so screwed.