"At first, the war was not a war at all, but a one-sided slaughter by Assad's troops against unarmed civilian protesters, a dynamic that Assad knew invited American-led intervention against him. Then it was a war between Assad's loyalists and home-grown Syrian rebels, which posed the same risk. But by allowing extremist groups like ISIS to grow, as he focused on weakening moderate rebels, Assad created a conflict in which he was the lesser of two evils. This strategy was not a secret; it was carried out in the open, as we all watched, and there is no mystery that Assad hoped to cultivate ISIS's growth." - Eric - Final Countdown