Putin's birthday had nothing to do with it. But sure, if it makes you happy. Much like Obama is Putin's bitch. Or Iran's Or North Korea's Or Saudi Arabia's Or Israel's
Why wouldn't civilized people support Assad. He's fighting ISIS, al Qaeda, al Nusra, and just about every other Sunni terrorist organization. He's an eye doctor, which means he sees Syria's demographic and geographic situation more clearly than anyone except perhaps for Rand Paul. Syria's age old problem is that it isn't governable as a pluralistic secular democracy because it's got too many irate fundamentalist Sunni wack jobs in the population. The French figured this out quite quickly and rigged the government and military to make sure minorities held the reins of power, a classic divide-and-rule strategy that led pretty straightforwardly to Hafez al-Assad and his regime. This just pissed off the Sunni extremists even more, and so for Syria to exist as anything other than a fundamentalist Sunni Islamic state requires a heavy and bloody hand no matter who is in charge.
Russia's lucky to have Putin. We get corrupt cowards like ObamaBushClinton and all the good liberals fawn all over them. (LOL libs pretended to hate Bush policies until Obama championed them. #GullibleRetards)
Looks like the Russians are moving nuclear missiles into Syria to counter-attack US forces if Obama orders a strike. BBC story I figure they'll take out the Eisenhower if it comes to blows. Hillary's reset is working so so well.