KREMLIN STOOGE: Cooperation with Russia in Syria Off the Table for Trump Team.

Military officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who orchestrated the 30-day interdepartmental review of the Islamic State group plan, have expressed deep skepticism about Russia’s ability to stand by previous commitments it’s made to the U.S. or reveal its true intentions in Syria. American officials estimate 80 percent of Russia’s air strikes have actually targeted positions of rebels fighting the Assad regime, not the Islamic State group.

Beyond the prospective symbolism of a new alliance, American war planners don’t see how bettering relations with Russia could achieve anything the U.S. can’t already do – a perspective some experts consider unwise.

“Our professional military and the people who are engaged in planning don’t actually think – other than preventing inadvertent fire, friendly fire, collateral damage – they’re very skeptical of this theory of the Russians actually being much use to our efforts,” an adviser to the Trump team told U.S. News, one of many who are familiar with the Islamic State group plan and spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to publicly discuss it.

Again, you might experience some difficulty in reconciling stories like this one with all the talk about Trump getting elected with the Kremlin’s help in order to do Putin’s bidding.