Boots on the ground isn't the only way to occupy a country Clete. A hand picked puppet leader who shills for foreign powers is just as effective in pillage and plunder as an army. It's funny how you can always denigrate a religion other than your own, and then accuse me of bringing religion into the conversation. In truth there are fake Muslims and fake Christians and many helpless sheeple to follow the crumbs of salvation straight to hell. Assad himself is from a minority sect of Islam that associates with the Shia's, but make no mistake his religion is POWER. Nothing to do with any God by any name.

He sides with the Godless Putin because they both want more power. Simple as that. The Dufus puffs himself up after going boom boom, that accomplished absolutely nothing! It was louder than his last roar, with a bigger cast of characters, a show of indignation at best, and nothing but show at worst.

Changes NOTHING.

Tal, you like to defend Muslims, but Islam is a religion that tells its followers lying is acceptable when dealing with a non believer, Christianity does not tell me lying is acceptable behaviour. I'm sure you have a good handle on fake Christians and the lies told as well as a good handle on hand picked puppet leaders.

In my opinion Syria should be left to work out their own solution unacceptable as it is to us, the west should get out of the middle east even if this means Russian influence will increase again. You talk about puppets but your leader is a puppet of the Saudi just as the Bush's were

Your religion tells you that it's okay to hate? It's okay to be a hater? Yeah right! You have a lot of self righteous audacity. There is no difference to me between Islam and Christianity.

Tal, what my religion tells me is that there are those who follow Christ and those who do not. Jesus warned us the antichrist is in the world and I see Islam as a manifestation of that. It is not hate speech to so, no matter what the cockeyed left in your country might think. Now I can judge Islam by its actions and I can judge some so called Christians by the same standard. You are very mistaken that there is no difference between Islam and Christianity, that is an anti Christian view

You are entitled to believe as you will, as am I, and be you Muslim, or Christian or any other religion, all I care about is are you a good human in words and deeds, or a not so good one. My main point is only to point out the history of this regional conflict which I think on closer examination could enhance this discussion to a higher level than mere religion, and focus on the very common human behavior of seeking MONEY, and POWER. That's an older motivation than any religious affiliation.

Despite your very dim views of Muslims, and the conflicts and skirmishes throughout history, they seem to coexist around the world very well except when some nogheads haters inflicts their bigoted poison into the mix as ISIS did, and of course YOU hard core Christian made it about YOU, and completely ignored the fact of the wholesale killing and repression of their own fellow Muslims. You are correct as we have seen this before in human behavior for GAIN, by the overly ambitious throughout history.

That's my main argument against the DUFUS! He is clearly driven by creating chaos and division for his own personal gain, and that does nothing to promote order and peace. Hi words and deeds just don't match, nor benefit no one but his own agenda, which is clearly money and power, as is the agenda of Putin and Assad... and others to be sure.

They all got to go to give the peace a chance.

Then why do they remain in power for decades until there is some outside intervention ? I look at the American revolution as an example . WE would not have won without the assistance of the other global power rival of Great Britain.

The emperor dealt herr Donald a bad hand by letting Russia, Iran and China believe they could advance their goals of regional domination without U.S. resistance. In Syria as elsewhere, Trump has to decide if he wants to ratify that American retreat or develop a strategy to stop it. It is unclear which direction he will steer because to abandon the emperor's policies would be to abandon his own national security naivety .

The Dufus has to own his own actions and while loud and public, rather sloppy in the way he deals with other nations. That's where experienced state department officials and AMBASSADORS working behind the scenes could have been of great benefit, instead of the public name calling to keep his base excited and project strength, because indeed he better have the support of our allies to accomplish anything substantial.

This sound bite diplomacy doesn't fool Putin or Xi, since it's based on ego, not data, and they can carry on with their own agendas unfettered by the Dufus threats. Even Assad can ignore him and do as he pleases and what he was doing all along... ending the threat to his power. Yeah, our orange idiot is feckless and no matter what you say Obama left him, he has torn it down and has no clue which way to go next. LOL, but rest assured he will make a big do about his handling of it.

We haven't even talked about the rest of the players in the Levant who are doing their own thing at the risk of even more slaughter of those allied with us still. I'm referencing Turkey, and the expansion into Kurdish territory.

Don't know what you are talking about . There were 3 maybe 4 allies that participated in the strike . It was a no brainer ;and as a side benefit ,it showed how weak the Russian position is there . How does that square with the ridiculous fantasy you guys have with this collusion narrative ?

Dump has said he wanted out of the middle east, he doesn't want regime change in Syria like his predecessor who created a quagmire and carries the blame for Iranian expansion and Russian interference. Turkey has taken advantage of a vacuum. What allies do you have there. Turkey is your ally although they don't know which side they are on. Look at a map, the Turkish incursion is small

Being a dictator is a form of government common in the east, Erdogan is far worse than Putin and certainly on a par with Assad.
He needs to be closely watched as his new détente with Iran is very concerning. We can expect that Erdogan wants to re-establish the Ottoman empire just as Iran wants to re establish the Persian empire, actually they are a lot closer to it than we might think

Just like Putin wants to restore the old Soviet Union? Plus Putin uses underhanded tactics to make his opposition disappear or nullifies them with jail, and plenty of propaganda, so he doesn't need gas, or his regular army so much. A slick mobster approach, with an interesting tactic of removing his armies insignias, and letting them be mercenaries, which he distributes to targeted countries.

Nothing like a dictator seizing and keeping power to fuel human migration patterns.

Now Tal are you objecting to a little Russian recreation for their troops? Is there a large movement of the Russian population? Assad certainly has depopulated Syria