Lynn, You are correct in stating that air strikes alone will not defeat ISIS and Putin is conducting strikes against anti Assad terrorists, to free up Assad's troops for the battle to push back and eliminate ISIS

The so called "moderate" rebels are far from moderate and are an impediment to the conduct of the ground war.
Without Assad there would be no ground defence against the spread of ISIS. If the West had its way Assad would have been blown to pieces by now and Syria would be in the same state as Libya.

You seem to have a good grasp of the Syrian situation, surely you don't think that a "liberal Democratic" government could survive in that environment.