He wasn’t standing on an aircraft carrier with a banner saying “Mission Accomplished” behind him, but Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was a lot more credible than former US president George W Bush when he declared his country’s military intervention in the Middle East a success. 
And most of the Russian forces in Syria are going home after only five months, not the eight years that American troops stayed in Iraq .
                                                    
                                                    
                                                    
                                            
                    