Why is it naive? What we’re doing now is not working. Continuing to do it is just nuts. Russia won’t tolerate ISIS and will destroy them. The official US policy is that Assad needs to go, but we also don’t like ISIS and conduct very limited military action against them. So do we just demolish the entire country?
What about ISIS in northern/central Iraq and the Shi’ite government’s warmth towards Iran which is rapidly going nuclear—also part of our national policy?
Are we getting involved for oil? There’s not that much oil in Iraq. For Saudi Arabia and Kuwait’s oil? We have far more recoverable oil inside our borders than they do.
Are we protecting “freedom”? For whom? These Islamic countries are among the least free countries on Earth regardless of how much money or blood we spend, and, from what I’ve personally seen, the people don’t seem to mind it. Our national policy on that is that “hey, it’s just their culture” (see the child rape in Afghanistan for evidence).
Is it to protect Israel? Our national policy seems to be that we don’t much care for them. Even if we did, we don’t need to go against Russia to protect them.
What exactly is our vital interest in that region?
Ballistic Missile Range Geography. Have you read FSS EMS?
Russia is just going to be an ISIS target with the 200 troops and 6 tanks they have in Syria.
Assad has already lost most of his country, he won’t be able to take it back with that assistance.
ISIS is already using it for recruiting, Muslims from the Caucasus and Chechnya are heading there literally looking for Russian heads.
Obama is trying to finesse ISIS and it’s not going to end well.