I don't see a problem with bombing these rebels, not even from the perspective of fighting ISIS. It can even be easily be explained to the international community. The so called 'rebels' are Al Qaeda operatives and Russia has said all along that Assad needs to be part of the solution, which means Assad's army is in the end the ones who need to move in and finish the job once Russia has bombed ISIS into pieces. Who else is going to clean up? My guess is that these so called rebel groups do not control much territory at all and that they would get eaten by ISIS anyway once they disposed of Assad.
The US and coalition has really screwed this up though. It will be very difficult to convince the Euro's that Russia should not target these people, while millions of refugees are on the move to Europe. No doubt Putin is gaining back public approval he lost after the Ukraine situation.
The US and coalition has really screwed this up though. It will be very difficult to convince the Euro's that Russia should not target these people, while millions of refugees are on the move to Europe. No doubt Putin is gaining back public approval he lost after the Ukraine situation.