He oppressed other groups but in that region that’s basically the standard and has been for a very long time. The obvious truth is when you get rid of the strongman rarely if ever anything good comes.
Removed Saddam and Isis was created
Removed Gaddafi and you have a civil war for over a decade and one of the biggest human trafficking hubs in the world.
Removed Assad you’ll get a very similar negative outcome. The Sunni HTS fundamentalist have no interest in a representative Syria, they want Sunnis in power to lord over Alawites Druze, Christians Assyrians, Kurds, etc. if you disagree you end up in a field with a bullet in your head, maybe they’ll do it to a few villages filled with civilians to send the message.
Before with Assad in power at least these minorities had some understanding with Assad and largely lived peacefully. They’d obviously preferred autonomy but sure as fuck not the Al Qaeda rebrand taking over.
You're a cold hearted realist, right? From that perspective it's worth it from a US strategic perspective to deprive Russia and Iran of having an ally in Syria.