For overlapping sets of reasons, key players — the Americans, the Russians, and the Israelis, among others — see Syria’s civil war as the least bad of a set of dangerous alternatives in a pivotal region.

“Our ‘best case scenario’ is that they continue busy themselves fighting each other and don’t turn their attention to us,” an Israeli intelligence officer told BuzzFeed’s Sheera Frenkel. “Better the devil we know than the devils we can only imagine if Syria falls into chaos and the extremists from across the Arab world gain a foothold there, ” the officer said…

It would also please the Russians who, aside from scoring points on Vladimir Putin’s saving of a situation that nobody wanted, get to profit from the higher oil prices engendered by regional instability (a longer-term trend than the quick upticks brought about by concrete threats of military action). Russia stands staunchly against US interference in global affairs, but loves seeing the U.S. caught up in a good mess too.