“If Putin wants to serve his Iranian masters by fighting there, that’s his business, but let’s not pretend he’s some kind of hero or fighting against the bad guys or protecting Christians.”
Putin is serving Russian interests, exclusively.
He is protecting Russia’s access to a warm water Mediterranean port and air base south of the Bosporus.
He is also honoring a formal treaty to protect the government and territory of Syria. Something that is necessary to be seen as a reliable partner on the world stage.
I appears the only reason for the US is there is to thwart Russia. And that’s piss-poor foreign policy.
That's not the only reason - also because Iran ordered him to protect their guy in Syria.
You are right. But plenty of Freepers say they are there to protect Christianity or defeat ISIS, which is nonsense. They have even worked with parts of ISIS in cases. (ISIS is not the monolith most Americans think) And Russia is not the reason ISIS is in bad shape today - that is because the nature of ISIS was doomed to retract and decline. I appears the only reason for the US is there is to thwart Russia. And that’s piss-poor foreign policy.
I actually disagree with that. The U.S. actually has no coherent policy in Syria. We are only there because we pathologically cannot help ourselves from getting involved in the Middle East. To that extant Obama and Trump basically have a similar confused, incoherent policy there. We should just be out of there, and thank our luck that it's not our problem.