Append to 1.: "moderate rebels," like Al-Nusra Front, who were actually caught in Turkey with chemical weapons [1].

Ron Paul is questioning the origin of the attack, but here we are.

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia is moving forward as of earlier this week, and the Turkish stream pipeline can't move forward until the Syria question is settled. Add to that in late March Russia announced it was coming up with an alternative to the SWIFT banking system. Collision course.

Vlad doesn't seem like the kind to back down. Not looking forward to this one bit.

[1] http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-syrian-rebels...

1. The US is also fighting ISIS. Despite the popular saying, "the enemy of my enemy" is not the same as "my friend".

2. Assad is also someone who uses chemical weapons on his own people. (All right, the other side of a civil war, but still citizens of his own nation.) He's a guy who turned protests into a civil war by his brutality in response. "Secularist and modernizer" isn't the same as "good guy".

Secularist, modernizer, dictator, war criminal, human rights violator..

I can't wait for somebody to start judging american presidents by the same standards.

Well they aren't dictators, but they aren't always secularists or modernizers.