[Lord Tito]

A gradual escalation of Russian and Iranian military support will be pointless. It will be countered by increased support from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the other pro US Gulf States supporting the jihadists as America's gradually escalating involvement in Vietnam was successfully countered. Russia and Iran need to go in full force on day 1 and exterminate the Al Nusra(AQ) and ISIS terrorists in a blitzkrieg like war. If they eliminate those terrorists already in Syria before they can be resupplied and reinforced from outside it will make closing the borders possible thus slowing any new infiltration to a trickle.