All Is [Kinda] Forgiven

"[The goal of the young warriors] was to be killed for Allah's sake, doing so in support of His religion, His Prophet [blessings and peace be upon him], and His allies."
"A Statement on the Blessed Onslaught in Paris against the Crusader Nation of France."
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

"It may be now, having seen ISIL take down one of their airliners in a horrific accident, that the reorientation continues. From the start, I've also welcomed Moscow going after ISIL. The problem has been that in their initial military incursion into Syria, they've been more focused on propping up Mr. Assad and targeting the moderate opposition as opposed to targeting those folks that threaten us, Europe and Russia, as well."
"If we get a better understanding with Russia about the process for bringing an end to the Syrian civil war, that obviously opens up more opportunities for co-ordination with respect to [the group]."
U.S. President Barack Obama

"It's not the right moment to judge who is better and who is worse."
"Now, it's necessary to look forward and pool efforts to fight the common threat."
Russian President Vladimir V. Putin

Russia's President Putin welcomes U.S. President Obama before the first working session of the G20 Summit -- tribune.com

Well, there it is, President Obama praising President Putin as a "constructive partner" in diplomacy. Has a familiar ring hasn't it? And President Putin is mewling like a satisfied cat, extending his call for the U.S. and Russia to "stand together" against the threat of extremism. It was Mr. Obama who spoke of the prospect of military co-ordination with Russia. How soon are recent enmities over Russian power gone amok in eastern Europe laid aside.

But President Obama appears to be convinced that President Putin has seen the light of reason and plans henceforth to focus his military on Islamic State rather than furthering the interests of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, having experienced the lethally poisonous venom of Islamic State first hand through the downing of the Russian airliner out of Sharm el-Sheikh.

And it's true that Moscow is furious with rage, vowing vengeance, not to leave one stone unturned that the Daesh vermin could seek shelter from reprisals under. In actual fact, this was a riskily rash move by ISIL's Sinai Province affiliate given the fact that Russian airstrikes were targeting Syrian Sunni rebel forces and more or less overlooking ISIL's presence as a dominating threat.  ISIL has rather foolishly turned that around.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, walks past President Barack Obama -- minnpost.com

Now, it looks as though a Russia-Western agreement might very well be in the offing -- so sorry about Crimea and the ethnic Russian Ukrainian rebels, Kiev. What an oddity has once again surfaced; the U.S. airstrike coalition has demonstrated its inability to really knock ISIL into yesterday, cheerfully accepting that an alliance with Russia might very well score the knockout instead.

Obama, in other words, failed through lack of deep commitment, while Putin is given the opportunity to restore himself with the global community.

At the G20 summit in Turkey all was sweetness and light, jocular humour prevailed, smiles all around and stout reconciliation, leading any onlooker to surmise that events have conspired to a situation where all is forgiven. More or less. Putin will not surrender Crimea to Kiev, nor call off his ethnic Russian thugs in Ukraine, and Obama will not lift the sanctions, but they'll work together to remove the stench of death in Syria.