This has become a war that is far bigger than any of us

"What am I going to do?" he asked plaintively, offering tea in china cups salvaged from the ruins. "This has become a war that is far bigger than any of us. The country is being destroyed, and the region is being sucked into a hole from which it can never recover.
"This could have all been avoided if people spoke to each other from the beginning, if leaders acknowledged that the people have the right to expect things from them."
end partial quote from:

Battle for Aleppo could prove final reckoning in Syria's war

This man living in the middle of the Syrian War sums it up for the world, a proxy war with Russia, Iran, Iraq and Assad on one side and the rest of the civilized world mostly on the other side. 

Though this isn't a Cold War Putin says, his actions make it a new kind of proxy world war in Syria, Ukraine and now Moldova.