Here is the painful part, the Iranians who started the revolution have been anti-American because of what they feel the USA did in propping up the Shah - but they really don't hate the west and don't call for world wide jihad (because they are a minority within Islam).
The next generation of Iranians are very pro American culture and pro west but the Iranians are also a nationalistic and patriotic people and if the USA backs a jihad against Shia in Syria this will make the Iranian youth who want to open up to America become anti-American.
And we don't know how Arab Shia Iraqis will respond to Syrian Sunnis killing off Syrian Shia.
For some stupid reason the USA backed a play in Syria that now is a lose / lose situation for the USA but because of inertia - we as a super power can't be seen to change our minds or have second thoughts - we have to keep going on with a policy that failed us jeust because if we stop it we look weak or makes senators and the president look foolish, etc.
In the end we may need to send both Obama and McCain to Syria to explain to the Christians why they believe they are a useless minority that should be murdered off.
“Like the Shia Iranians or not (and I do not) they at least give their Christian minorities legal and political and religious rights (limited as they may be) compared to the Saudis.”
A known fact our “all informing” media has refused to report about our “friends” the Saudis.
“For some stupid reason the USA backed a play in Syria that now is a lose / lose situation for the USA but because of inertia”
The American State Department & CIA machinery was hijacked (with quaint sounding names for funding programs approved by Congress) into an agenda that is not our own, in service of Islamists alligned with Saudi Arabia to depose Assad BECAUSE he is an Alawite (heretic sect from a Sunni point of view) and BECAUSE he made friends with the regime in Iran which is contending from the opposite side of Islam, the Shia side, for Islamic supremacy in the region.
As bad as Assad was, he was not the cuase, he was an excuse.
Like in Egypt, many who support the “rebels” and many who joined them have no idea what the core leaders of the Syrian opposition hope to create in Syria. If they did, they too would be refugees now themselves.
The U.S. has to take its blinders off and quit thinking that some Islamists where white hats and some where black hats. None of them are our friends and when I say that I am not talking just about the terrorist type. In fact some of those who are not terrorists are worse because they have been tunneling into western society from within (with the help of immigration), with long term goals for Islam in our society no different than the terrorists.