Dr Alf makes good points but the problem posed by Syria was caused by the attempt to “take down” regimes in the Middle East, Russia and China as clearly stated on the Project for a New American Century website.
That site and the wording was the mental construct of Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearle, Frum and the now white-haired and
bewhiskered John Bolton.
The plan was always to destabilise Syria, remove the Iranian regime and to then destabilise Russia, starting with the Muslim southern underbelly whilst using Turkey to unsettle the Uighurs in China prior to fomenting the breakup of that country through Tibetan independence, colour revolutions, umbrella revolutions and stirring up gay people.
Russia wants to remain a global player and does not wish to see itself dismembered, indeed it sees Syria as the 21st-century version of the Battle of Stalingrad.
China sees the writing on the wall and has already checkmated the Pentagon’s Air-Sea Battle strategy and is moving towards cloaking devices, hypersonic scramjets and the ability to wage war in space and destroy carrier fleets.
Chinese military advisers are joining Russia’s Spetsnaz in Syria as we speak so the war of words at the UN is the precursor of something potentially much bigger.
Putin will make mincemeat of ISIS but is not necessarily interested in propping up Assad who I predict will go into exile and then be replaced by someone more to everyone’s liking.
As for Obama, he is yesterday’s man, a forlorn and hand wringing figure, who will soon be counting his millions, writing memoirs and golfing, interspersed with legal work that he is actually qualified to do.