“Yeah, yeah he’s a bad guy and all, but it’s the Middle East.”
The American narrative has always been good guy vs. bad guy. The Soviets went from being our enemy to the good guys overnight. Then, they became the bad guys. I think they should have been sold with a greater nuance but the powers that be want a simple picture. They reduce a huge work of art to a line drawing with no shading. In the Middle East it’s bad guy vs. worse guy. If you get involved at all it had better be for your national interest and you pick the one who is better for your national interest. In this case it’s Assad. (However, our voters here did not pick the candidate who is best for OUR national interest, so how can we expect him to chose the way we would over there?)
We made the same mistake with Saddam. And frankly if we really had to get rid of him, the Israelis could have made quick work of it.