Well, America almost had an excuse to take out Assad last year after the chemical weapons attacks which were blamed on the Assad regime. America was just about to begin open military operations when Secretary of State Kerry gave Assad an out by telling reporters that Syria could avoid war if it surrendered its chemical weapons to an international coalition. Putin immediately stepped in, taking advantage of Kerry's blunder.
Instead of attacking Assad openly and directly, the US has had to fight Assad covertly. The same Saudi Arabian Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan were later called Alqaeda and blamed for the 911 Attack. This same Saudi-funded group was sent to Libya to overthrow Qaddafi. After Libya these terrorists, now called ISIS, were sent to Syria to overthrow Assad.
The New York Times claims ISIS is being funded by oil money from wells they now control in Northern Syria. This is only partly true if at all. ISIS has only recently controlled these areas in Northern Syria, These mercenaries are a quick study when it comes to the oil business. And who are they selling oil to? Not Assad, not Putin. Putin is on Assad's team. Therefore, ISIS must still be funded by Saudi Arabia and covertly by the US via Benghazi.
Now in Syria, ISIS has been allowed to spill over into Iraq nearly unopposed. This seems like a pretty bone-headed move by ISIS since they were supposed to be a NATO ally helping us depose Assad. ISIS should have know that they would have no cover in Iraq from US attacks. The only thing that makes sense is that ISIS was ordered to spill over into Iraq and that these high-profile beheadings are propaganda to gain domestic and international support for NATO to bomb Assad openly and directly.
So, here is the globalist plan. While the US and Saudi Arabia continue to fund the good moderate rebels in Syria as opposed to the bad radical rebels (what's the difference?), ISIS is taking over Syrian military instillations . After ISIS takes over, the US comes in and bombs the heck out of the Syrian military base making sure to take out Assad's jet fighters along the way just to make sure the ISIS people don't get them. Not that any of them could fly an advanced jet fighter. But these Jihadis are good, just look at how they flew those airliners into the WTC after failing a few flying lessons in Florida.
After, Syria and Iran, then what? Putin has said on several occasions that if the NATO were to violate the sovereignty of other nations like Syria and Iran that Russia would not rule out a nuclear attack on NATO. So, far Russia together with China have been modernizing and prepping for just such a doomsday attack.