I agree what’s happening in Ukraine is firstly about economics and trade with Europe.
If the U.S. is going to counter Putin in Ukraine, then it’ll have to be for the long run. And, the Russians will play, especially on their doorstep, Putin or not. The Europeans will leave that part to the U.S. - will add the Ukrainians aren’t exactly the innocent party in all this. So, I think it will be an ongoing and complex situation.
By the way, I’ve talked to Eastern Europeans, from former Soviet Bloc who assert their ‘liberation’ was their own doing, not due to any other intervention. True or not, that’s debatable; but that was what was expressed.
The comparison with Assad and ISIS is not quite relevant, since so far as ISIS is concerned we aren’t dealing with a nation or country, but much more an ideology which has the potential to mobilize over a billion people worldwide (Islam). Ok, not a billion, but consider a fraction of that; some won’t be muslim-born either. They aren’t country-bound.
Moreover, there is no basis to say Assad created ISIS. Of course Assad, like many in that region, has relations with ISIS, especially since ISIS gaining land and has controlled a portion of Syria. The same ‘relations’ can be said for a couple of others in that region. But, Assad, as bad as he is, is neither ideologically aligned with ISIS, nor is ISIS of any real benefit to him or his regime; in fact ISIS is much more of an existential threat to Assad than to USA or Europe.
From Der Speigel:
"In 2003, the Damascus regime was panicked that then-US President George W. Bush, after his victory over Saddam Hussein, would have his troops continue into Syria to topple Assad as well. Thus, in the ensuing years, Syrian intelligence officials organized the transfer of thousands of radicals from Libya, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia to al-Qaida in Iraq. Ninety percent of the suicide attackers entered Iraq via the Syrian route. A strange relationship developed between Syrian generals, international jihadists and former Iraqi officers who had been loyal to Saddam -- a joint venture of deadly enemies, who met repeatedly to the west of Damascus."
"At the time, the primary aim was to make the lives of the Americans in Iraq hell. Ten years later, Bashar Assad had a different motive to breathe new life into the alliance: He wanted to sell himself to the world as the lesser of several evils. Islamist terror, the more gruesome the better, was too important to leave it up to the terrorists. The regime's relationship with Islamic State is -- just as it was to its predecessor a decade prior -- marked by a completely tactical pragmatism. Both sides are trying to use the other in the assumption that it will emerge as the stronger power, able to defeat the discrete collaborator of yesterday. Conversely, IS leaders had no problem receiving assistance from Assad's air force, despite all of the group's pledges to annihilate the apostate Shiites. Starting in January 2014, Syrian jets would regularly -- and exclusively -- bomb rebel positions and headquarters during battles between IS and rebel groups."
See the links:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/islamic-state-files-show-structure-of-islamist-terror-group-a-1029274.html
From THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR:
"“The pictures were taken before they became emirs in ISIS, when they were all officers in the Syrian special service. There are documents sent by the special service to ISIS telling them to capture or kidnap people in Raqqa and Jarabalus, and these documents will be published. And you will see how the regime fabricated these extremist groups that did not exist in our country at the beginning of the revolution."
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/01/michel-kilo-syria-opposition-regime-terrorists-isis.html#