Originally Posted by crockett

Putin doesn't give a fuck about Assad, Putin cares about the Russian Military base in Syria. It's their only real way to project influence in the region. This is the reason Russia is helping Assad against ISIS & the Rebels. Otherwise they couldn't give a flying fuck.

Russia doesn't even have a base in Iran, so if Assad falls, they can be pushed out of Syria giving them nowhere in the ME to have a point of influence.

Russia will cave on this.. they will pressure Assad to do nothing. Basically Assad stepped over the line using chemical weapons "again".. Yesterday Russia made excuses trying to shift blame, but Putin said something important "Russian support for Assad was not unconditional"..

Next we have 59 tomahawks coming down on the Syrian airfield the chemical attack was launched from. It just so happens Russian troops also use that airfield. We gave Russia a warning before the attack so they didn't have any casualties which also meant that obviously Assad's forces would receive the warning from Russia..

We targeted mostly soft targets, hitting radars, refueling rigs, a few planes ect.. We didn't destroy the runways or even any hangers from what I saw. This was all a show of force to tell Assad NOT to step over the line again. Basically a very stern warning and finger waving..

Now it's wait and see mode. We wait to see what Assad does next. Will he take the warning or will he run head first into the wall?

Basically, this was very standard response for this kind of situation. It's a simple warning that says we wont accept the use of chemical weapons. This was a warning to both Assad but more importantly to Russia that they need to keep him in check or remove him if they want to keep their military base in Syria.