The Syrian rebels operated out of eastern Syria and western Iraq. Saddam Hussein never would have allowed that, not for a second.
So yeah, the Syrian civil war was yet another unintended consequence of George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. That invasion never would had happened if Gore had been elected president in 2000. I voted for Bush. And I had better shut up now.
John McCain would had gotten elected in 2008 and we would probably had gone in Iraq by then. Either way, perhaps the Iraq War was inevitable.
Gore wasn’t to overrule the State Dept/CFR Establishment.