Adams’ and Walt’s recommendation that the United States align itself with Russia in the fight against ISIS is both morally and strategically misguided.   The authors argue that a Russian alliance would provide us a “link” to the Assad regime, “working ties with the Iranian” regime, and “an intelligence-sharing agreement” with Iran “that could well include Iranian allies like Hezbollah.”   However, Assad’s regime is responsible for most of the quarter of a million casualties in Syria’s civil war, Iran is an expansionist country and the chief backer of terrorism in the Mideast, and Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. Russia under Putin is responsible for the ruthless crackdown of Muslims in Chechnya. For the sake of our standing vis-à-vis moderate countries and peoples in the Mideast, we must distance ourselves from such unsavory parties.   To be, or even appear to be, allied with parties that threaten our allies in the region would erode the already much-damaged respect and credibility of the United States.