Name:   architect - Subject:   You make excellent points Date:   10/5/2015 8:26:26 PM (updated 10/5/2015 9:04:31 PM)

I think this is a religious war in the Middle East that began in earnest when the Soviets got ther tails whipped by the Mujahadeen forerunners of the Taliban in Afganistan in the early 80's. The unfortunate irony is the "victory" over communism was won with US supplied weapons and training.  The Militants got their start complements of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Today it has become a battle between the most extreme elements of the 2 main branches of Islam with a temporal faction (Assad, Iraq, Afganistan, Egypt, etc) thrown in for good measure...a real goat rodeo! For the most part the refugees are non-combatants caught in the crossfire.  They are running for their lives!

I know it is a hard sell, especially in this part of the world, but the best thing we may have going for us is Iran's actions against ISIS.  The harder they come down on the militants the better for the sensible among us.  Putin is a tin pot autocrat who wants to restore to Russia some of the influence lost with the dissolution of the old USSR and he thinks coming to Assad's aid is a step toward that end.  In spite of Fox New's "admiration" of his leadership he is delusional. Unless he shows more caution than has been his habit, a re-run of Afganistan is a more likely result.  Nobody including Russia and Iran actually believes in Assad.  He is just a convenient place to park their Middle East policy until he becomes inconvenient.  At that point Mr Assad will likely "retire" to the South of France.  ISIS is the real threat to Iran, Russia and all humanity and that is where the military attention belongs.  The humanitarian attention needs to be on the Refugees.

Beyond a possible no-fly zone against the Syrians and stepped up air attacks in ISIS, isn't our best bet letting somebody else do the heavy lifting at least for the moment?  The refugees situation is another matter...it has the potential of making the military side look like a Methodist Sunday school picnic.