“And, the west can’t overtly support Jihadis, can they? “
Supported them in the 80s, in the 90s, in the 2000s and in 2010s. So, yes, the west — America primarily — had been, has been, and will be supporting Jihadis.
And Assad didn’t??
How many times does it need to be said, the Assads bombed our Marines, killed the Christian Prez in Lebanon.