The Guardian is really putting in the extra effort this week. Last Tuesday it declared that big, scary things would happen to Europe if Assad (with Russian air support) retakes Aleppo. Europe hasn't burst into flames (yet!), but things are still really, really bad: With help from the wise George Soros, our favorite "liberal" British rag is now proudly declaring that ISIS is sort of "meh", while Putin is a plague upon the civilized Earth.

Let's explore this treasure trove of cognitive dissonance together.

See? Just like ISIS, but worse! He's Russian The leaders of the US and the EU are making a grievous error in thinking that president Vladimir Putin’s Russia is a potential ally in the fight against Islamic State. The evidence contradicts them. Putin’s aim is to foster the EU’s disintegration, and the best way to do so is to flood Europe with Syrian refugees.

Wow, Putin is truly a judo chess wizard. He somehow convinced the US and its allies -- probably through mind control, he knows how to do that kind of stuff -- to fund and arm terrorist groups to destabilize Syria. This, of course, would require Putin to intervene (after 3 years), flooding Europe with refugees fleeing from Russian child-seeking bombs. (Child-seeking is only kind of bomb Russia has in its arsenal, of course). Ergo, Europe will be destroyed and Russia will lose a huge economic partner -- it's brilliant! Or is it?

Putin is a gifted tactician, but not a strategic thinker. There is no reason to believe he intervened in Syria in order to aggravate the European refugee crisis.

What the heck, Soros. Didn't you just write the exact opposite? Make up your mind.

Indeed, his intervention was a strategic blunder because it embroiled him in a conflict with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which has hurt the interests of both.

Uh, no. Turkey's president embroiled himself in a conflict with Russia -- you know, by shooting down a Russian jet? We've never heard this argument before, ever. Syria was a Russian blunder because it hurt Russia's relationship with Turkey? That's the big blunder?

But once Putin saw the opportunity to hasten the EU’s disintegration, he seized it. He has obfuscated his actions by talking of cooperating against a common enemy, Isis.

Here Soros confuses Russia with the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, among others. A common mistake/typo.

The most effective way Putin’s regime can avoid collapse is by causing the EU to collapse sooner. An EU that is coming apart at the seams will not be able to maintain the sanctions it imposed on Russia following its incursion into Ukraine. On the contrary, Putin will be able to gain considerable economic benefits from dividing Europe and exploiting the connections with commercial interests and anti-European parties that he has carefully cultivated.

Isn't this what psychologists call "projecting"? When you're an insufferable douchebag, and then accuse someone else of douchebaggery to cover up for your own douche existence? The historical record is really very clear on this point: Since the fall of the Soviet Union, US and European "strategists" have been dreaming about carving up Russia and stealing its resources. Russia has never attempted to destabilize Europe -- Soros is just talking out of his cornhole.

Soros never actually juxtaposes ISIS with Russia -- because it's pretty clear which one is a terrorist organization that chops off heads and uses child sex slaves, and which is a normal country with normal people.

Anyway, golf clap for George Soros and the Guardian. Tremendous work, as always.