There are no reliable anti-Assad “freedom fighters” in Syria, that the US may depend upon to unseat Bashir al-Assad.
For stability in the region, we would have been far better served to have supported Assad from the beginning. Much as he may have been a “good buddy” of Saddam Hussein, defeating Hussein probably put good enough scare into al-Assad, that he was ready to go straight, or at least as straight as a Middle East despot can be. Muammar Gaddafi, tyrant he may have been, at least had established stability in Libya, until the meddling of various parties, many of whom are deeply embedded in the Current Regime, chose to support “democracy” through the “Arab Spring”. The intention was to apply a similar tourniquet around the throat of Bashir al-Assad.
Only, al-Assad is NOT an “Arab”, he is Syrian, a different folk from Arabs, who exclude Syrians from their countries. Though descended from the same basic bloodlines, Syrians are held in contempt by Arabs, particularly the Sunni Arabs. Although 75% of the people of Syria are at least nominally Sunni, the ruling clique are all Alawites, and the doctrinal differences are enough to foment and feed a long-term dispute, going back to long before the modern era.
Not our fight and never was. But some very clumsy individuals within the Current Regime have chosen to insert themselves in this dispute, and now we have embroiled several other power players in the region, some from much further away than just immediately adjacent. By still demanding the ouster of al-Assad, we have put ourselves on a collision course with the Russian Federation. The fight just got a LOT bigger than it ever was before.
Have we become the de facto allies of Iran? We are certainly lined up AGAINST the Sunni Saudi Arabians.
Can’t tell the players apart without a score card.
The only thing that would have stabilized the region was to have utterly destroyed the Iranian Mullah regime along with its Revolutionary Guard corps. Allying with Assad, who is their ally, would have meant more destabilization. More destabilization is going on right now with Iran’s rise; just ask Israel.