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Assad has to go. I mean, the way that ISIS can recruit, and the rebels that are in the north, and all the chaos that's happening through a lot of Syria circles around a lot of people that do not like Assad.

The only people that have ever fought ISIS in Syria is not the regime; it is the Free Syrian Army.

I have long argued that ISIS and Assad are not separate problems to be chosen between, but are action and reaction, cause and symptom, chicken and egg: impossible to untangle no matter how much we might like to.

ISIS already has strongholds in Syria, while the Free Syrian Army desperately needs more U.S. assistance.

Here's the problem the Free Syrian Army has. They really want to topple the regime in Damascus, and this is where most of the fight takes place, between Aleppo and Damascus for the Free Syrian Army.

Assad's regime helped ISIS grow by attacking other opposition forces and rarely targeting ISIS.

The success of ISIS is largely tied to the safe haven it has in Syria.

You cannot defeat Islamic State with airstrikes only. It's necessary to cooperate with ground troops, and the Syrian army is the most efficient and powerful ground force to fight the Islamic State.

We have to face the fact that ISIS and its army of like-minded jihadists are determined to win that war and believe they are on the path to victory. They may well be right.