If you’re curious to know what a truly post-American world will look like, take a close look at what’s been going on the last few days and you’ll get what I suspect is a pretty accurate snapshot.

In the Levant, Syria’s smoldering civil war flared up, with an apparently reformed Islamist terrorist organization retaking the northern city of Aleppo. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, surprised even itself by the ease with which President Bashar Assad’s forces initially melted before it.

This became feasible because Assad’s allies — who stepped into the void in 2015, after then-U.S. President Barack Obama declined to hold the ring — find their militaries sapped by engagements elsewhere. Russia is mired in Ukraine; Iran and Hezbollah have taken a severe beating from Israel. HTS, backed by Turkey, chose its moment accordingly.