I once assumed that small incremental environmentally conscious steps in how people lived, worked, and played were inevitable. I'm talking smaller, more energy efficient, and safer vehicles, vegetable protein substitutes in place of industrialized meat products becoming generally accepted and even the norm, and I even had naive presumptions about some imminent expansion of mass transportation because it simply made more economic sense.
But that was all before I learned the power of 
I thought that Rojava and some SDF forces would continue receiving support and that Turkish engagement with kurdish groups would be prevented by NATO actors. With Syrian under Assad creating a semi-stable state in which the east gets a quasi-autonomous region in trade for taxes and secured region, which might have led to Assad being replaced in skewed elections, he himself for political reasons living out his life in peace in Syria, Swizz or alike and a bit of spending cash.