sadly, hrw and other organizations of the sort are fronts for the state department. it's pretty documented.

now that the russians are occupied in ukraine, they're ramping up the syria rhetoric again.

and this isn't going to be a quick bomb-and-invade operation. to begin with, they've got hezbollah on the ground. second, the russians have been selling anti-aircraft for years. third, the iranians are a real question mark, as russia and the united states are in a pretty open multi-theatre proxy war at this point. which has the possibility for further escalation in iraq, as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnyjzgh4lQ0