Putin's escalating Syria involvement: A weapon pointed at European unity?

[Igel]

1. At the same time Syria went on record saying it lacked the manpower to expand the fight.

In other words, every soldier killed makes it that less able to hold ground. In a war of attrition, Assad will lose.

Assad being Putin's ally, Putin could send munitions to help Assad but that's not the problem that needs a solution, is it? Assad needs boots on the ground.

Putin, however, has a domestic problem. Dead soldiers from the Donbas. Soldiers who are of questionable loyalty, since they were former Ukrainian soldiers. Soldiers who've fought in the Donbas and shouldn't be out and about spreading tales out of school. Kadyrovtsy who need someplace to show their manhood by killing and maiming people in support of whatever.

Turkey's a bit of a problem, because it has no love for Assad. But the chaos on the border is finally not to its liking. The refugees were a problem, to be sure, but the uppity Kurds responding to being killed by actually fighting back? Damn, don't they have the common sense to know that they have an obligation to let their superiors kill them?

Any side-effect for Europe is that. Otherwise we again not only see the tail wagging the dog, but the tail lifting up the dog and bashing it to bits on the ground.