Let’s begin with the good news — the Pentagon is backing away from its failed effort to recruit and train allied Syrian rebels. After millions of dollars in expenditures yielded less than two dozen friendly fighters in the field, the administration is going to “refocus” its Syria strategy. But here’s the bad news — it’s continuing its quest for the mythical moderate in a jihadist-dominated battlefield:

The Obama administration backed away Friday from a failed effort to stand up a rebel force in Syria, as the Pentagon announced plans to instead aid existing rebel units that officials believe have better odds of weakening the Islamic State . . . The Pentagon will now provide equipment and weapons to vetted Syrian units “so that over time they can make a concerted push into territory still controlled by ISIL,” Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said.

I tend to believe there are some American-allied militias in the vast and confused cauldron of the Syrian battlefield (Putin’s first targets for his air raids, for example), but I’m completely unconvinced that there anywhere near enough to make an ultimate difference in the war. The Kurds have proven themselves in northern Syria, but their reach is limited, and replicating in other militias the Kurdish fighting spirit and longstanding affection for Americans will be difficult to the point of impossibility.

There is no easy answer to the Syrian crisis, and now that Putin has deployed in force, there may be no short or medium-term answers at all. There are no best-case scenarios, only least-worst outcomes, and at this point the least-worst outcome may require America to defeat ISIS in Iraq, diminish Iranian influence over Baghdad, and step-up the air campaign in Syria to secure Kurdish gains in the north and prevent ISIS from reinforcing its forces in Mosul and Anbar province. In other words, leave Putin to his Syria war, restore American power and prestige in Iraq, protect the Kurds, and break up the emerging Lebanon-to-Iran axis of Russian and Iranian control. As a strategy, it’s hardly ideal, but we left “ideal” in the dust long ago.