The barrel might have leaked.

Carlo Cottarelli, appointed by the Italian government to oversee its expenditure review, noted recently that even before spending cuts were enacted, they were being used to finance new spending. The political economy of public spending reform is tricky, and well designed macroeconomic plans can be taken hostage by pork barrel politics.

According to the Violations Documentation Center, the leading cause of death among Syrian civilians this year has been the indiscriminate use of aerial weapons barrel bombs and chlorine gas dropped from helicopters by the Syrian army. For Syria s many rebel groups, Assad represents the greater threat, and thus will have to be removed from power before attention can be focused on defeating the Islamic State.

That may involve giving a short term role in a political transition to President Bashar al Assad (partly to save Russia s face). But a president who has barrel bombed his own citizens cannot conceivably be part of a longer term peaceful settlement.