Thats good news. Im no fan of assad but the “rebels” are made up of al quida and taliban scum and they need to be defeated, having assad in control is far better then al quida.
Helping Muslims kill one another is not a bad thing from a Russian perspective - as long as they do it far away from Russia.
Looks like Russia doesn’t want to kill the Christians and Jews of Syria (who are protected by Assad)
Another blow to the Putin Haters here on FR
Let’s take the long view. What did the US get from the Viet Nam war? Our soldiers were trained and practiced a new kind of warfare. So, when other wars erupted we had battle trained commanders in much of the higher ranks. We developed new technology, such as the laser guided bomb and, eventually, the F-15. (The F-4 was largely a failed design in Viet Nam.) We developed deployable battery powered intelligence gathering devices. I’m sure there are other positive aspects if one ignores the politics, they waste and the loss of life.
Now, what will Russia take away from Syria a decade or two hence? Perhaps more cost effective methods for quickly making and moving weapons. I’m guessing they’re pressing ahead with cheaper, more effective drones. Probably they’re developing methods, possibly satellite mounted, that will spot everything there is to know about a territory in one pass. It will tell them where the people are, the enemy, the friendlies, the logistics, the weapons. They’ll probably have a computer prioritize targets and program and control the drones that will prosecute the war around the clock.
Incidentally, they haven’t given Assad tactical nukes yet, but don’t bet against it. Russia doesn’t give up investments easily and they’ve made a big one in Syria.
I have suspicions that this is the main reason Obama cooked up the scheme of giving Putin the job of overseeing Syria...to hide the fact that George Bush was right when he said Iraq had WMD.