Not quite.
This is a situation where demarcation lines were drawn and Russia violated them. They knew not to entangle with troops that were fighting ISIS is specific areas that have US Special Ops embedded.
They gambled and lost badly. Putin doesn’t mind gambling with Russian lives.
Correct!
They did this on purpose to test our resolve and to see how we’d respond at the envelope being pushed beyond the brink.
They lost...
We disagree. Putin doesn't mind gambling, but we should not be there. We are not making the situation better in any way. If Russian troops attack us, we should kill them, obviously. However, it would be better not to have our troops there in the first place unless they have a purpose that serves our national interest.
Option 1 would be to topple Assad. We're not even trying to do that, as far as I can tell.
Option 2 should be to make Syria stable as quickly as possible. We are actively preventing that outcome.
Option 3? That is to keep Syria unstable longer, when they are already seven years into their war. Our strategy is the worst of all possible choices. Even toppling Assad would be better, and I suspect that would be incredibly harmful to our interests.