The real truth of your story comes out at the end,

You vastly oversimplify the Russia issue, if we cooperate in areas of mutual interest (aka Syria) we likely sell out every single ally who has been fighting by our side (often at massive cost of life) against Assad for years.

You are also confusing and conflating a desire on the left to maintain and strengthen soft power with a desire to expand hard power. POTUS is snapping the bonds of US Soft Power daily like they were matchsticks.

Now, all that said, yes Max Boot and the neo-cons mostly stink (but they are usually pretty consistent).