I have no faith in Obama at all. In the Syrian context, he and therefore us, are mostly irrelevant.
The direction comes from the coalition of Turkey and the GCC Arabs.
The decision that Assad must go was made by them .
I think the effort actually began sometime ago. Recall if you will that it was reported here that 20,000 of our arms were stolen from a depot in Kuwait. That is a comical explanation for arming the rebels
To make things clear I have no faith in Turkey and Arabs too. United States, China, Russia are relevant. They have levers against every side involved.