That's a much more balanced discussion of the whole situation from most angles.
There are a couple of things that didn't get a mention. One is that besides the ISIS situation the US would have liked to have brought down Assad because he is an ally of Russia (with Iran to follow). How is the might of Russia playing out in that one?
Another is the geopolitics surrounding the South Stream and Blue Stream pipelines and which one might get built (or maybe both or neither). If it looked like neither I would expect Russia to apply a lot more pressure than we see now.
Good to see that the US got a mention for arming and training the forerunners to ISIS around three years ago when they were fighting Assad in Syria.
