The Syrian army is back in the news

So the Syrian army is back in the news. For months the Syrian story has been solely about Kurdish troops and the US involvement and now also the Turkish incursion. What one might ask have Bashar Assad's forces been doing all this time? The civil war which was supposed to oust Assad from power is effectively over. Much of the ground occupied by anti-Assad militia has been recovered. Isis in the north and north-east has been routed. Assad himself has been very quiet, perhaps happy for everyone else to do his dirty work. But now after this extraordinary and opportunistic deal between the Syrian army and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, trained and funded and weaponised by the US, Assad's troops have joined forces with the Kurds to hold back the Turks from crossing the border. It's a clever move by the SDF although they had little choice. With the US out of the picture who else could they turn to? I would love to know who attended the meeting that led to this anti-Turk arrangement. The Russians must have been there. The Iranians too would have been represented. Trump must have realised this would happen once he ordered the Pentagon to withdraw all the US troops to a safe area well away from the northern border. I suspect Trump doesn't care. In his head he will be thinking, what the hell were we doing in Syria in the first place? Ok, fighting Isis but did Isis threaten the United States? Trump must have hated Obama for getting the US involved in Syria. What was it he called it? Ridiculous wars. So with no Americans around to get in the way, Assad has reasserted himself. He's the boss again. He sends his army to drive the Turks back. This is the leader, remember, whom the West wanted to overthrow and replace with a nice western-loving democratically-elected president. Well, Assad and his army are back!