Here, let me reinforce the lack of commonsense I was referring to. Keep voting left, we're sure to be a third world country in no time.
Russian strikes again expose US disarray
Not gonna quote whole section to save space. The thing is, and this has been Obama's worst offence in office, is Obama talks about the world as it should be and Putin talks about the world as it is. Assad is a dictator and slightly oppressive, but Syria had less violence and $33bn in reserve before civil war. Iraq, Libya, Egypt (though army retook governance) overthrew leaders in Arab spring and are now totally lawless shitholes. Obama, like many idealists, wants western democracy, but neglects to see that the "other option" is not western democracy but complete chaos and anarchy.
Putin is a dick, completely abusing Russian democracy by stepping down to PM then back to president, but at least he is a realist.