A writer who had spent time with many groups in Syria wrote a piece I’ll try to summarize. He said the problem for the West was none of the groups see a solution to the Syrian problem anything like what the West sees. They all see varying degrees of Islamic solutions, the implementations of which would horrify the West. There is no egalitarianism or magnanimity in the face of victory. If the West interferes to create a winner that winner will be as bad for the losers as a different winner would be for them. The author didn’t say so, but my takeaway was that Assad is the best solution for everybody over there. Although, he will most likely punish those he perceives as causing him the most problems. But as Assad sees himself as a leader in the Western mold, that punishment will likely not manifest itself in genocide.
Our “sophisticated” and “nuanced” soft diplomacy mavens are naiive and were foolish to provoke this collapse.
Mid-East is a mess. None of actors are good in any respect. There are old enemies (Baathist Syria, Russia(Soviet Union,) Hezbollah, and Iran) and new enemies(Al Qaeda, ISIS, sundry of Islamist terrorists and their backers such as Saudi, Qatar and Turkey.) Even U.S. are included in this list of sorry actors. Sometimes it is good to see Russians beat the crap out of their enemies, and at other times, the other way around.
This is a theater where players and spectators alike are blinded by ideologies and old grudges. People choose their side based on whom they hate more. Some hate old enemies so much that they entirely give pass to new enemies.
Which is worse, Marine barrack bombing in Beirut in 1983, or 9/11 attack in 2001? Relatively low-tech Sunni Jihadi terrorists wreaking havoc in Mid-East and attacking Europe and U.S. creating mass casualties, or ones with large conventional military and strategic arsenals such as Russia and Iran? People have problems sorting out their view on these questions.
Of course, one of the worst problems is that, as you said, U.S. and Europe want to impose their multi-ethnic diverse democratic system, their version of utopia, on Mid-East.