I agree...unless cooler heads prevail. Sadly the US isnt engaged in a meaningful way and likely wont be until Chairman O is out of office. Even then its not a shoe in.
The story makes it sound like NATO against Russia but Im thinking it wont play out that way. Russia certainly considered the possibility of coming to blows with NATO before entering this fight. It seems there are other ways of playing the game without a conventional war. Then again Russia might team up with China and play it both ways. The ME has plenty of wealth and both countries would love to control it...esp the part where they take it from the US. That would make the trophy even bigger/better.
If NATO was going to step up actions against Russia, it wouldn’t be in Syria. They would embolden forces in Ukraine which would force Russia to allocate more resources to secure the territory.
That’s the correct play for the west as it forces Russia to either defend it’s territory from Syria, hoping to prevent a bridge to Russia through Turkey, or take Ukraine outright, firewall it and just keep enough resources there to help Assad stay in power.