If Assad holds out, Shiite Iran and Russia will be pleased and we are back to square one, with Syria being even more anti American.
If Assad is overthrown, the Sunnis , Al Qaeda , Saudi Arabia win, and Assad and his Alawites along with the Christians will get wiped out.
There is no good outcome for us. - Tom
I say we go for Operation Chaos - arm the rebels and keep this thing going.
It doesn't matter that Syria may be anti-American. What matters is that Assad will be very much pro-Assad, and that means that you can deal with him. He takes threats very personally, for a good reason.
On the other hand, MB & AQ are amorphous masses. You can't threaten a large group of people with assassination because they know you can't kill them all. This leads to very dangerous decisions because there is no personal responsibility for them.