Oh he is but he's still considered fascist-lite compared to the other side. I mean just take a look at the garb worn in Damascus vs some rebel held areas. That alone is pretty telling.

I'm perfectly fine with that.

Good news imo, if it turns out to be true. The opposition consisted of many fishy "moderate" islamists, and they really didn't seem like a great alternative to Assad. Of course there are plenty of good minded people in the resistance that simply want to live in a democratic Syria were human rights are protected, but there seemd to be a lot of rotten apples in the bunch that could eventually take control of the government.

Also, the whole arming and training resistance movements in the Middle East has never really worked out well for the US... could really backfire like when the US trained the talibans.

That being said, Syria needs a democratic transition and Asad should step down at some point. I much prefer the US resort to diplomatic pressure on Syria and negotiations with Russia to help make this happen, over arming rebels.

this "country" is centuries away from our democratic standards, a guy like assad (i do not approve of him, but he is the "best" we have right now) is the only way to keep such a bunch in check
except you divide syria in 3 separate territories, assad, kurds and the rest, while that rest means you practically have another caliphate

Fantastic news!

Syria was never our mess to meddle with, if Russia wants to then more power to them. We took our turn in Iraq and Afghanistan

I didn't say a transition to a western democracy. I don't think our standards would work there (at least not yet), but you can't have a tyrant that abuses human rights, doesn't care about separation of powers and allows widespread corruption either. If you look at Lebanon for example, you will find a healthy democracy, with a pretty strict rule and some censorship and conservative stuff we wouldn't approve of in our western societies, but that are acceptable (and even desirable) from an arab perspective. But over all the people there have rights, they can vote in free elections and chose a government that addresses their demands. Syria should aim for that imo... there needs to be a transition period that stabilizes the country, and then shift towards a model of state that is at least agreed by the vast majority of population there, so there can be a government that works for their interests and is ultimately kept in check by the people. At the end of the day, Syria should be what the Syrians want it to be.

'b-b-but it's no western standard democracy so you might as well have a russian controlled dictator who ruthlessly slaughters any opposition to keep that "bunch" in check.'

ok