Syrian war continues...

[OdinHades]

Augen said:
[...]

I think the US with NATO allies and Russia can work together on this.

I know people may hate the solution, but choices right now are
1. Dictatorship
2. Chaos
3. Long term occupation
We know we lack the desire and resources for 3 (ex: Iraq), so 1 is the best of bad choices right now.  We know we can team up and crush a force of ISIS scale in war fare. The issue is the aftermath.  As nice as democracy would be, it is a long road for many places that would take decades to achieve.  Some may call this cynical or cruel, but we've tolerated these kind of authoritarian states in the past.  I look at Iran and using diplomacy and trade as the blueprint to play the long game in the region, as opposed to disaster that was and continues to be Iraq.

There is a problem though. Dictatorship leads to Chaos. The opposition won't stop fighting the government just because the russians came. They will get enough support to continue the civil war for several years if not decades. The various forces in syria might even team up against the government and russia, leading to an full-blown war leaving nothing but burnt earth. Putin doesn't care enough nor does he have the fundings to plainly invade the whole country. With Assad, the country is going nowhere and the slaughtering of people in syria will continue. 

As it is right now, I'm afraid there just is no solution. No matter what you do, it just leads to more chaos. Kill off ISIS and some other group will follow. Al-Qaida is still alive and kicking for example. Trying to kill each and every enemy of the state of syria is an impossible task, especially when they are entering guerilla mode.