[Sherman Logan]

Assad is not our friend.

It is quite probable some if not most of the rebels are worse, but that doesn’t make him a good guy.

Kind of like the conflict between Stalin and Trotsky.

[Eagles6]

Bad guys killing each other is a good thing.

[RetiredTexasVet]

Excellent point. So many people think too highly of Trotsky ... Stalin just got to him before Trotsky got to Stalin. There is and never was a “good” communist.

[Cronos]

well, not quite. Stalin winning or Trotsky winning were both losing hands for the west. In fact trostky winning would have been worse since he was smarter and had a better strategic sense than Stalin AND he was fully committed to comitern, to spread communism to the west. He would have been able to do this -- he nearly DID do it with Tukachev's help in 1920 when the Bolshevik's seemed poised to over-run even Western Europe but were stopped by Marshal Piłsudski's Polish forces in the Miracle on the Vistula

If Trotsky won, then all of Western Europe including the UK would be communist in 1921.

But this case differs from the above -- T v/s S was a winner take all

When Assad wins, he's still going to have to constantly watch his back PLUS, he now knows that the rest of the "Arab League" openly hates him, so he'll split that and tag-team with IRaq. That leaves him as one dictator who has to constantly focus on keeping his Sunnis down AND it makes for a constant antagonism between the Iran-Iraq-Syria axis v/s the SAudi-Qatar-Turkey-Pakistan team

Assad winning is better than the jihadis winning and is better than Assad in 2008 -- he's weaker and will remain so and will also be constantly fighting internally and with the other Arabs.

[Cronos]

RTV -- read my post above. Actually, if you can get your hands on Adam Zamoyski's "1920: battle of Warsaw" I STRONGLY recommend it. Trotsky was the real danger. Stalin was vicious but also not as far-sighted as Trotsky

A very real nightmare scenario could be Trotsky taking over all of Europe + the UK (during the 1920 battle of Warsaw, the dock-workers and other workers in England stopped work, refusing to ship aid to the Poles under the slogan "Poland, keep your hands off Russia")

and then he would have hit China and much of Asia

Trotsky was the one who SAVED the Bolsheviks during the Russian civil war -- the Bolshies had first undermined the Army by getting soldiers to kill their commanders, but Trotsky managed to pull off an incredible feat (and again, I recommend Zamoyski's book, it's short, but his words are superbly concise)

[Cronos]

SL -- I don't see Assad as "takes over all the resources of a country and aims them at us." -- for the above reasons. Also, he has no resources as Syria has no oil and the jihadis are sunni backed. the shias will be warily watching the Sunnis

If the jihadis win on the other hand, then yes, it is a training ground for them