The Turks are complete and utter shitheads, the Kurds slightly better allies than the Afghans, the Iraqis proved themselves as backstabbers in the extreme although many were legitimately pissed about the behavior of many allied personnel.

We are better off enforcing a safety zone around proven allies and drilling our own oil.

I would also say use diplomatic pressure to force other countries in the region to keep those refugees relatively local, not crowd them into Europe like some sort of invading army.

There is just no way a combined war against radical or even mainstream Islam AND Orthodox Christianity works out well for the USA. Right now what is going on is secularized Islam and Orthodox Christianity are fighting against Mainstream-radical and radical in Syria. It was a gamble to support Syrian revolution and that gamble has just not worked out. I think the only answer on that one is going to be a map-redraw which leaves the Assad family in charge of the areas which already support them. Open borders up just enough that people can migrate to where their rights are protected and they fit in.

This shit in the Ukraine pushed the bear too far into the hole and the Crimea is a bridge too far on that one. I hear from locals in the region about how the Russians are dickheads and act as "Russian Supremacists" to those who speak the local dialects and all, but mass eviction is just pushing it. Compensated eviction maybe, but you cant push that large of a population without territory of their own.

Our military is simply too beat up right now to take Russians on head on. These are NOT cold war patriots fresh from watching Red Dawn and a bunch of Chuck Norris movies on Showtime and the bottom line is wars are NOT won by Special operations toops. What it takes to win open conventional conflict is what we call "crack outfits", or highly competent and motivated conventional forces troops with modern upgraded equipment. Eager to fight, clever and ready to improvise, provided with the newest and best technology of their day. That's what generals want to deal with. It's not exactly what we have right now. The Marines are being rebuilt fairly well, but just don't have the numbers or logistics at this time to tangle with a major conventional force in the Middle East for no strategic reward.