Gayle Tzemach Lemmon & Molly O’Toole : “President Obama used the pulpit of the United Nations General Assembly to condemn Russian military meddling in Syria and implore world leaders to back his own strategy: contain the conflict militarily while seeking a political exit for Bashar al Assad. And at all costs, avoid U.S. ‘boots on the ground’ in yet another Middle Eastern conflict. But Moscow’s buildup of troops and assets in Syria in avowed support for Assad underlines the limits of this approach.”  

“With each of Russia’s moves in Syria and now Iraq, both NATO and the Obama administration have said they were caught off guard — but critics say there’s little surprise that an all-in Putin would step beyond Obama’s red line in the ISIS fight. Putin answered Obama in his own United Nations address, questioning U.S. resolve and outlining his own version of the situation, which he said requires military action against ISIS — and to support Assad… As Russia moves its military assets into Syria, it is also helping to determine the next phase of the bloody conflict — and to show that Moscow, not Washington, is now shaping the region.”