“They are doing everything they can to keep Assad in power. THAT is their objective”
Here’s a brain teaser for you. If Assad falls, who by far has the motivation and power among the rebel groups to come up on top and be running Syria?
It will be an ISIS state. (nobody except you, McCain and Obama says ISIL)
For Bonus points which of “our” rebels will allow Syrian Christians and the handful of Jews in Damascus to live normally? None.
So yeah, wiping out all the rebels, even “ours” is a very good thing. Removing Assad is doing what the Saudis want, and enslaves people.
The United States believes Russia’s incursion into Turkish airspace on Tuesday likely lasted only a matter of seconds before Turkey shot down a Russian warplane, a U.S. official said, saying the assessment was based on preliminary indications.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States was still investigating the incident.
http://news.yahoo.com/russian-entry-turkish-airspace-lasted-seconds-u-official-164618732.html
I don’t know of too many on FR who agreed with the US policy of removing Assad, especially after what had occurred in Egypt.
Having made that clear, there is no question that Putin’s military operation is designed to maintain Assad’s control. He is not there to eliminate ISIS. In fact, ISIS has little to do with this as they are primarily limited to a rather small northern area and at present are not a threat to Assad.
The real threat to Assad, is the US coalition who is arming the local insurgents..
It’s a geopolitical disagreement that neither affects Russia directly or the US for that matter.
So it can be said that it is really a proxy war with everyone in close proximity.
It’s extremely dangerous. And if it escalates it will be the catalyst for WWIII.1 and ISIS will very quickly be forgotten.