Turkish jets shoot down plane, page-40

Osi,
With respect to your detailed knowledge of the situation on the ground, I see no solutions in your posts. Reading between the lines it seems that the situation will never be resolved and this will go on forever.
Obviously it must be stopped as soon as possible, considering that increasingly more powerful weapons will eventually fall into the wrong hands, with or without the help of the CIA etc.

"The US along with the EU were (reluctantly) accepting the presence of Assad pending an agreed transition arrangement."

Yes, but what they obviously didn't spell out is which world power the successor will be aligned with. That wasn't lost on Putin who made his move. A pro-US puppet regime with NATO moving in spells the end for Russia and Putin knows it. The US knows it. And who knows what the middle east will look like after that, judging by what has happened so far.

It's time to do whatever it takes (where have I heard that before), which will involve partnerships rather than confrontations. The solution needs to be tough enough and resolute enough to render all these religious squabbles as superfluous, if that's the right word. You will probably say that's impossible, but it must be done. But the question in my mind is how? Putin's method might look a little ham fisted but at least he is looking at the big picture. It just needs the US to truly get on board and start wielding their power in a partnership rather than in a proxy confrontation.