Killing Islamist terrorists is escalation? Heck, even Slick Willy fired Tomahawks at bin Laden’s base in Afghanistan.
I hope this might force Putin to send some of the Wagners from Ukraine back to Syria. The new military head of ALL operations in Ukraine is a real vicious SOB. He is friendly with the vicious head of Wagner, and the vicious head of Chechnia. They are the 3 hardliners with power that Putin has to deal with. There is also a reconstruction of Russian command in Uraguay with one rather than 4 commanders, thus removal of one layer of command and communications delays when trying to run a war in the field.
The situation in Iran is looking more like the protesters might win. A judge is asking for people to talk with him, and for the first time the Revolutionary Guard was not attacking protesters. The oil workers now support them and they were critical to the revolution that overthrew the Shah over 40 years ago. In 5 days we will see if Xi will continue in power. If not, interesting times in China. In fact a lot of interesting times in a lot of places. Similarities to soap operas, but a lot more serious.