This, of course, begs the question; what very powerful and rich special interests were pushing the clueless Obama to get rid of Assad??
As always with Oriental and Middle Eastern riddles this story is so full of mysteries that it is hard to know where to begin. However, I think we have three reasons for the Establishment to suddenly wanting to topple Assad (remember that Syria for long periods, despite its dictatorial rule was considered by the same people as a stabilizing influence in the Middle East).
a) The Arab Spring - blue-eyed idealists, and there are many of those in our foreign office departments all over the US and Europe, hoped that all dictatorships in the Middle East would vanish thanks to a few secularized youths armed with iPhones and twitter accounts. Unbelievable? No, quite a few of our "top" diplomats are no more knowledgeable about the world than so. Terrifying, but nevertheless true.
b) The Quatari pipeline - in contrast to the idealistic reason, a very down to earth reason: Money, power and influence. Assad - maybe because of his alliance with Iran - did not approve of a pipeline through Syria. Therefore he must go. Note that people who where for toppling Assad for the first reason also would like to see him go for the much more worldly reason.
c) Stopping the Shi'ite power sphere - the conflict between Sunni and Shi'a in the Middle East also has its mirror image in the CIA and State Department. Those who see Iran and Shi'a as the major threat, and those who see Sunni and the Wahabi terrorism as the major threat. The Iranian power sphere runs from Teheran through Iraq, via Syria to Lebanon and Hezbollah. Getting rid of Assad and his Alawite rule would split the shi'a power sphere in two, and reduce the threat against the Gulf States.
The last point shows just how uncoordinated the Obama foreign policy has been. We have SecState Kerry arguing for military support of ISIS in Syria, and at the same time Kerry is negotiating a total surrender towards Iran regarding the nuclear weapons deal, including enormous wealth transfer to Teheran. Is this just stupidity, or does it show an inner split in the Obama administration? Waiting for further leaks.....
And praying the adults will take over now.
Note that it is not bad at all that stories of McCain is starting to flood all over the Internet now. McCain and his SC side-kick are the two GOP senators that will try to cause trouble during the confirmation hearings with Rex Tillerson. What we see here may be part of that game as well.