http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2004/10/syria-s-trouble
Russia gave arms to Syria who per this Heritage foundation article, assisted Saddam’s regime against the war effort in Iraq. Those are the people who went on to be a big part of ISIS.
The Syrian regime also likely helped bomb US marines in Beirut.
Russia has given arms to Syria for many years; also, your mention of the Syrian regime's involvement in the bombing of U.S. Marines is the first I've heard. What source to you have for that?
Also....I'm not a Putin backer, but his forces are entering Syria and enabling that country's government to take the fight to ISIS. And face it.. as our failed, pathetic, feckless, half-hearted attempts to galvanize meaningful opposition proved, there ARE no alternatives to the Assad regime. Much as I despise Bashar Assad, his secular regime essentially left the Christian communities to function in Syria.
If this country had an actual leader it would -- as we did in WWII in concert with Stalin -- find common cause with the Russians and coordinate an effort to push ISIS into a tightly controlled pocket along the Iraq-Syria border and then exterminate it. Had we sought to do this months ago, Europeans (and soon Americans) wouldn't be facing a forcible migration of a million jihadis into their countries.
The additional Russian presence is a symptom of Obama's horrendous failure in the region. Really now -- $500 million to train FIVE PEOPLE? A real American leader would've pressed for a serious, combined effort with countries in the region, along with the Kurds to extricate those animals, but Obama refuses to aggressively move to counter ISIS' expansion.
Yes, it's distasteful the Russians are there, and it's unnerving that they're allying with Iran and Hezbollah... but unfortunately America can't lead anymore and that absence of leadership created a vacuum that Putin was all too ready to fill.