In continuing breach of its word, the Russian military is harassing U.S. military forces in northern and eastern Syria. Fortunately, the U.S. military is pushing back.

Watch what happened on Wednesday when a Russian military convoy attempted to overtake a U.S. patrol near Qamishli, along the Turkish border. If you're stretched for time, jump to the 30-second mark. You won't regret it.

عربة روسية تتجاوز العربة الأمريكية في القامسلي بريف الحسكة لتقوم الأخيرة بإخراجها خارج الطريق. pic.twitter.com/9PyWkdc6F9 — مركز حلب الإعلامي (@AleppoAMC) February 19, 2020

There are clear strategic utilities to this video and the kind of response it represents.

First off, it educates Russian military commanders that U.S. forces have both the authority and direction to use appropriate force to implement their mission. Russia is carrying out antics like this, around 100 miles away from where they've said they'll remain, to try and push the United States out of Syria.

The Russians are angry that President Trump has listened to his advisers and retained a small U.S. military footprint to defend oil fields that are critical for the future of America's Kurdish and Sunni-Arab allies. Russia wants those oil fields for itself and Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and is engaged in a range of covert and overt efforts to persuade Trump to abandon his Syrian allies.

In turn, this show of resolve also deters Russia from escalation. This is important in the context of long-standing Russian threats against U.S. personnel in Syria. The most serious example came with Russian intelligence services' use of mercenaries to launch a 2018 attack on U.S. forces.

This didn't end well for the Russians when then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis ordered airstrikes to "annihilate" their force. But Vladimir Putin will escalate against America if he senses weakness. By driving his guys off the road, the U.S. is showing the opposite of weakness.

Yet this video will also do something else: spark well-timed smiles in Turkey.

This is valuable in that America's erstwhile NATO ally is presently furious over Russia's, Iran's, and Assad's offensive in Syria's western Idlib governate. That offensive, again, in breach of Russian ceasefire commitments to Turkey, has sparked a new humanitarian crisis.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is threatening to launch a counteroffensive against Assad's forces. But by showing U.S. resolve in the face of Russia, Turks in the government and the public at large find a new reason to rejoin the U.S. alliance. The world's most powerful nation is showing Turkey that it has an ally-in-waiting with which to counter Russia's malfeasance in Syria.

In short, this video is proof perfect of the old adage: A picture is worth a thousand words. A video is worth even more.