Syria is very quickly becoming a bright flashpoint in the battle between Shiites and Sunnis. Russia has now put much more skin in the game after long ago choosing its side – the Assad regime.

Via ABC News:

A Russian military unit has arrived in Syria, according to Russian news reports, a development that a United Nations Security Council source told ABC News was “a bomb” certain to have serious repercussions.

Russia, one of President Bashar al-Assad’s strongest allies despite international condemnation of the government’s violent crackdown on the country’s uprising, has repeatedly blocked the United Nations Security Council’s attempts to halt the violence, accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to start another war.

Now the Russian Black Sea fleet’s Iman tanker has arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus on the Mediterranean Sea with an anti-terror squad from the Russian Marines aboard according to the Interfax news agency. The Assad government has insisted it is fighting a terrorist insurgency.

Perhaps American political leaders should truly re-think their position that the best course of action would be to arm the rebels and / or bomb Syria. As we’ve been saying for some time, going to the mat against nations like Russia and China for rebels that include Al-Qaeda and Hamas seems like a losing proposition, no matter how it turns out.