Rob - I'm surprised a military historian like you don't see the obvious - there's no testing ground like the real thing and Syria is like a grand rehearsal for a/the war with Iran and/or the ground level support of an insurgency there necessary for success in overthrowing that regionally much more important nutcase regime. The insurgency in Libya showed that modern information technology can be used to quickly train even illiterates to take out tanks and well armed regime troops, now the "west" is just honing the methods behind enemy lines for future use elsewhere. With Russia/China in need of the opposite sort of training in a real situation, should insurgency ever again come in their home nations, they'll have a similar interest in keeping the war going on for quite a while longer to test out smale scale versions of what they might one day need on a larger scale.

Russia supports Syria b/c it cannot lose that ME client state and that port. No weapon system sent to Syria is new or untested and Russia already has fought the Chechens three times and their frequent terror attacks. The US and West attacked Libya b/c they could- Gadhafi had no real AF and no real missile defense unlike Syria which not only would send up modern fighters to fight Western aircraft but also would fire barrages of SAMs at them. Neither the US nor Europe can put a coalition on the ground out of fear that Assad would hit them with chemical weapons, unlike Hitler that had Tabun ready but relented b/c he was gassed in WW1. Those are the reasons. Also the assault on Iran will come by air and not ground forces. Iran has tens of thousands of missiles ready for the expected attack and probably will try to get their AF fighters up quickly to avoid them being taken out on the ground. The world is much smarter now and knows the US and Israeli tactics used, so no real elelment of surprise anymore. The ME is also heavily armed with much better high-grade weapon systems from Russia rather than the old stripped export versions of decades past. Russia DID learn that lesson after so many of their systems were defeated and captured by the Israelis and shipped to the US for evaluation. The Intel was priceless and that's why Israel is our best friend in that region.

Rob - I didn't mean to offend you and I'm with you that it's a shame what happens in Syria.

Peter, NP as there are many views on any subject, historical or not. Even military historians and weaponologists argue amongst themselves!!!

Please note that the TKOG ref actually belongs on the performer line, but I put it with the new song to draw attention so that certain people wouldn't ask for a link to a mailed booklet from the Salesians.