He's roasting ISIS alive with thermobaric bombs and missiles. Yes, there's more collateral damage than US precision strikes, but after one attack yesterday a convoy of 16 ISIS vehicles were destroyed with the charred remains of over 40 ISIS members found inside. Not only that, but he's also attacking the people Obama has been stupid enough to arm, the al-Qaeda-run Army of Conquest. They have lost weapons caches and ammo dumps and are losing ground to the Syrian army. Say what you like about Assad, but he's certainly the least of the evils there because he doesn't have any policy about attacking America or, well, any other country, unlike every other group fighting there. As history has shown, secular dictators (like Saddam Hussein or Muammar Qaddhafi) are better than the religious nutcases that follow them.
It helps when you're willing to just incinerate a few city blocks to ensure that you wiped out the enemy, but the result is there. The enemy is being destroyed. Sunni radicals funded by the Gulf states are being wiped out, and the Shias who are winning can at least say that they are the ONLY people in the region who protect the rights of religious minorities like Christians and Druze.
It's sad and pathetic to watch the US reaction with our failure of a President. His State Department issues useless, toothless statements about how there isn't a military solution to civil wars (tell that to General Sherman, you gutless losers). His press secretary says the Russian bombing is "counterproductive" - well, yeah, if you want the Nusra Front to win I guess it is. His generals can't explain where our $500 million for arming "moderate rebels" went - it's obvious, there are no moderate rebels anymore. We spent $500 million looking for them.
When will we learn to stop trying to force sham democracies on societies that lack the social infrastructure for it and just be true to our allies in the Middle East even if they're dictators? Force is the ultimate language of the region. Assad knows it and Putin knows it. Obama is lost because he's just a community organizer out of his depth.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*