The United States' tactics in the Middle East have long been controversial and their intentions unclear, but they seem to have always been driven by a need to protect American interests, no matter what the cost to other countries might be.

Since the inception of the Syrian Civil War, which erupted in 2011, the U.S. has been supplying Syrian rebel forces with food, training, and weapons in an effort, they claimed, to combat the anti-human rights Assad government and ISIS forces.

Some hail Obama for siding with the rebels because he said that the Assad government was violent against their own citizens and crossed a "red line" by engaging in chemical warfare with their own people. However, others point out that the use of chemical weapons against the Palestinian people did not stir the U.S. or spur them to take action in defense of them, meaning the U.S. has an ulterior motive.

Russia has been assisting the Assad government for some time now, and China announced this week that they would be increasing their commitment to aiding the Assad regime in gaining back control of Syria. The announcement came just one day after Russia launched an airstrike on behalf of the regime from an airbase in Iran.

If the three are forming an informal alliance, which is aiding the government that the U.S. is paying rebel forces to overthrow, then the conflict outside of Syria could turn ugly as well.