rushed in military forces and are now launching air strikes, not against the islamic state, but against other people that are fighting assad. and that tells me two things, one that the assad regime is getting weaker and weaker in this awful lure of attrition in syria. second, the russians were so scared about the sustainability of assad that his survival, that they had to rush in forces and start air strikes. >> doesn't this raise the possibility of some sort of accidental clash? we've got air power, we've got fighter jets in the air over syria as well. >> absolutely. there will be a need to deconflict air operations, but the russian strikes today were in the western quarter of syria where the american air strikes have been operating basically in the northern and eastern third of syria. so they don't necessarily have to come into contact, but i think it would be exceptionally