[user104658]

Originally Posted by Livia

Russia has never been that bothered about collateral damage.

It's not even about that, unless they actually nuke the entire country off the map. They're trying to fight small, scattered, tribe-like groups of poorly trained (i.e. expendible) fighters using traditional country-vs-county war tactics. It won't work. It didn't work in Afghanistan for the West OR Russia, and it won't work in Syria