The Lowell Sun (Mass.), Nov. 7:

Perhaps this time President Obama got it right. When Russian President Vladimir Putin flexed his country’s military muscles in Syria by launching an air campaign against rebel forces a month ago, Obama said Russia would soon find itself entangled in a quagmire of its own doing.

Putin unleashed his forces in order to prop up Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose army has been unable to stave off ISIS and other militant extremist groups. Fearing a total collapse of Assad’s government, Putin apparently pounced to save what’s left of Russia’s only ally in the region.

So what’s happened? Well, Russia’s precision air campaign hasn’t been so precise.

According to the Associated Press, the month-long Russian bombardment has killed more civilians than ISIS fighters. That information comes from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the main activist group tracking this civil war.

The Observatory said it has so far confirmed 185 civilians killed – including 46 women and 48 children – while the toll of ISIS fighters was 131.

The same group said U.S. air strikes have been far more lethal against ISIS – killing an average of 250 a month – with overall total of 225 civilian deaths.

And now, an airliner carrying predominantly Russian tourists home from an Egyptian resort apparently explodes in midair, killing all 224 on board.

After first dismissing claims by Islamic groups that the airliner was shot down, Russian investigators haven’t ruled out something beyond mechanical failure or pilot error.

Two officials on Tuesday said U.S. satellite systems detected a heat signature around the passenger jet before it crashed, and the British government has already declared that an explosive device on board brought down the airliner.

If true, that’s a high price of innocent Russian lives to pay for saving a rotting Assad regime, something that might not be well received at home.

And now we hear from a Russian foreign ministry spokesman that Assad need not be part of any post-civil war Syria, only that a functioning government must be in place so that the people could decide Assad’s fate.

Moscow has proposed hosting a round of talks between Syrian officials and opposition leaders next week.

We can only speculate on what countries would participate and what possibly could be accomplished, especially if key parties boycott the talks or aren’t invited.

It suggests that developments on the ground and in the air have pushed the Russians to reassess the military and political situation.