Saddam was a son of a bitch, no doubt in that. But a son of a bitch is what it took to keep Iraq under control. We’re seeing the similar thing with Syria right now, we should be helping Assad, another son of bitch, to get his handle in the land of the Levant.
Helping Assad is helping Iran. As well as working against Israel.
But don’t worry; Russia is helping both.
Assad flew hundreds of Sunni jihadists into Damascus and escorted them into Iraq to kill Americans. If anything he’s getting the blowback from all those jihadists he supported back when we were in Iraq.
Assad supports and trained Hezbollah fighters and funnelled billions of dollars of Iranian weaponry and rockets into Lebanon to kill Israelis. Hamas also had its headquarters in Damascus, directing terrorist attacks into Israel only a few miles away from Bashar’s palace. That why Israel has bombed Assad repeatedly and Netanyahu supports his downfall.
Leaving Assad alone is one thing, helping him is out of the question.
The war could have been over quickly. My belief is that allowing the looting and chaos to go forward early on was a mistake. We should have nipped that in the bud instead of trying to be compassionate about their oppression. That was Rumsfeld’s biggest mistake IMO.