1) Get an invitation to the table for the Syrian peace talks. Support having Assad remain in power. Allow the regime, Russia and Hezbollah to route any remaining resistance in the country, including ISIS. Offer air support in fighting ISIS.

2) Let the Shia militias (Iranian backed) finish wiping out ISIS in Northern Iraq. Where we work under the guise of assisting the Iraqi government, offer air support in finishing of ISIS. The Shias are going to govern the country and there is no way around it. Try to set up some sort of continued autonomy for the Kurds.

3) Use the above two moves get Hezbollah and Iran to less actively fight Israel, which we will being to fully support again.

4) The Saudi's won't like any of this, but they need our support to keep the crazies from taking over. Long term the regime might be fricked anyway.

5) Agree to a program of having the Russians back down their posture in Eastern Europe and reduce sanctions in a tit-for-tat fashion. They go first. Use that reduced tension with Russia to begin rebuilding diplomatic relations with the eastern European nations. You know... the only one's that have balls.

6) Provide whatever support we can to the UK as they Brexit.

7) Openly support LePen in France. Precipitating the breakup of the EU is the best way to stem the flow of the Barbarian hoards.

8) Start taking a hard (but fair) line with China on everything from trade to international diplomacy. They need us just as much as we need them and they might think Trump is crazy enough to take us to brink on the trade front.

None of this is the humanitarian thing to do, but I think this is the most pragmatic approach. We put he lid back on the powder keg in the ME, ease our tensions with Europe, get more bang for our buck with China and improve our position in Europe.

I didn't mention anything about Libya, Afghanistan or most of Africa, because I don't know WTF to do with those situations.

This post was edited on 1/22/17 at 10:25 pm