Yep, I have come to the conclusion that the first Gulf War was a colossal mistake.
Especially in the end, since we left Saddam in power, who from that point on vowed revenge against the US, and ultimately led to the second Iraq war to remove him.
Up to the First Gulf War, while he was a bad guy, he served as a buffer against the Iranians.
>>>Up to the First Gulf War, while he was a bad guy, he served as a buffer against the Iranians.<<<
Not only he was a buffer against Iranians, he was also a buffer against Sunni radicals, known as Al-Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood.
The latter was probably a real reason of the Gulf War. Religious Arabs couldn’t stand it and joined their efforts to suck US into it.
It short, Saddam was a model secular dictator aimed to behead islamists of all colors.
Assad is similar in many ways but he is not in the same league. He also depends on Iranians for survival and for that reason only useful against Sunni terrorists, not the Shia ones.