As Syria and Russian have both used the Kurds to stir up trouble in Turkey I had a feeling Russia would work a deal with Syria and the Kurds. Russia will either work to sway Turkey or go about a regime change if necessary possibly leveraging the Kurds with a promise of a Kurdistan once Turkey is in line with Russia. This looks bad for the ME in regards to US foreign policy as this would expand Russia's influence in the region to Iran, Northern Iraq (Kurdistan), Syria (part of Kurdistan) and Turkey (part of Kurdistan).

As for Turkey I'm not so concerned with keeping Turkey (other than 4th largest NATO military) in the the UN as Turkey has been acting very Warsaw Pact this past year. I'm more concerned about Russia's ability to project force in the region. If we ever do see a WWIII Russian is leveraged nicely. As such I hope we won't need oil in the next big one.

I see a reboot of the old cold war strategy in the ME. With the extra 2000 boots on the ground headed to Saudi Arabia it looks like we are shifting gears and focusing on protecting Saudi Arabia and others in that area.

Can't say I fault Assad for resisting a Turkish exclusion zone inside its borders.
What a gong show that place is.

SSG Robert Mark Odom Courtesy of the Enabler in Chief of Dictators.