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Unlike the U.S., which has flailed around fruitlessly in search of a remedy to Syria, Putin is straightforward in his response. “We should finally acknowledge that no one but President Assad’s Armed Forces and Kurd militia are truly fighting the Islamic State and other terrorists organizations in Syria.”

Rather than the half-hearted, ever-changing U.S. approach – backing diplomacy while withholding weapons, launching air strikes when ground forces are needed, putting Assad’s presence ahead of the destruction of ISIL – Putin is willing to make a clear choice. Assad has to stay, at least for now, while Moscow and Washington co-operate on a united effort “similar to the anti-Hitler coalition, [that] could unite a broad range of forces that are willing to resolutely resist those who just like the Nazis sow evil and hatred of humankind.”

And he’s not about to wait around. For weeks Moscow has been pouring weapons into Syria, including tanks, helicopter gunships and fighter jets, while expanding an airbase near Latakia. On Wednesday pilots began their first strikes on Syrian targets, reportedly hitting rebel forces opposed to Assad rather than ISIL forces. In Putin’s view, ISIL is the greater danger. He fears it could spread to Russia, where Russian troops fought a vicious war against Chechnyan separatists. If Assad has to survive to prevent that, so be it. In an assertion that would be hard to reject, he told the UN:

“The only way to solve this problem at a fundamental level is to restore statehood where it has been destroyed, to strengthen the government institutions where they still exist or are being re-established, to provide comprehensive assistance – military, economic and material – to countries in a difficult situation; and, certainly, to those people who will not abandon their homes despite all the ordeals.”

You don’t have to like the man. You can, and should, deplore his actions in Georgia, Crimea and Ukraine. But if Bashar al Assad’s job is all that’s standing in the way of defeating ISIL, is it worth four million refugees, tens of thousands of deaths, and more years of terror and disruption?

Putin knows his answer to that question. The U.S. may yet get there as well.

National Post

KellyMcParland<