“Backing Assad would likely lead to a Sunni alignment behind ISIS.”
They already do. Saudi Arabia & the Gulf State basically pay the Jihadi-radicals to play in another sandbox (stay away from the Kingdom).
“Picking the Shiite side by making a nuclear deal with Iran helped cause this mess in the first place. If there’s anything guaranteed to get the Saudis and Qataris to start backing ISIS to the hilt, it would be allying with Assad.”
I don’t think anyone gets this. This started in 2009 when Iran was on the verge of a secular revolution. Obama sided with the religious Imam zealots running the country instead of the people. The entire face of the middle east would have changed.
Obama could have been the grand unifier of the middle east and secured his position in history as the person who singlehandedly brought peace to the world.
Instead he acted like a classic liberal and fonged it all up. A least his intentions were good....hahahahaha