The bottom line, however, is this war is nothing all that unusual when you look at the history of warfare in the M.E.
Much if not all is based on tribal ideology, it doesn't take much for the average man there to pick up arms....and with little reasoning behind that decision.
When you add in the political maneuvering done by all OTHER countries who have a vested interest in Assad's demise and the desired outcome for their individual agenda's,...well as we know it's really never about the people as much as it is the powers that be and their desired end in this whole M.E. affair.
Amongst this we have Russia and China sleeping together now....who pretty much keep their agenda's for the M.E. hidden ....they're to be watched very carefully IMO.
You never fight a covert war using terrorists as proxies and Islamic scumbags as weapons suppliers against a country that has WMD capabilities.
Russia ha always wanted a warm water port and always had congenial relations with Syria. Considered them an ally,if such a thing is possible with kgb pootie.