"The US are arming Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Islamic State gets its weapons by an unbelievable coincidence, from those same countries. Odd that.
For 2011-15 the US did not target IS in Syria, they concentrated on Assad. When Assad forces retreated from Aleppo, Islamic State were allowed to move in. "
IS were not the issue for a long time. They were of course, born in Iraq, but significantly, thousands of FSA fighters probably joined their ranks around 2014, and I wonder how many had been radicalised or embittered, in fact, by a LACK of support against Assad from the US. There were western journalists covering the war prior to that who were warning that many of the people they were fighting with were becoming increasingly desperate, and frustrated, at being ignored, as they saw it, by the US and allies. So in fact material support for the resistance to Assad has actually come far too late.
Putin has one great advantage in Syria: he is untroubled by conscience, and his aim is very simple. But at the moment I don't see anyone actually winning in Syria.
(DTC: I can recognise a troll when I see one:-) )