Our good friends the Saudis, and their money, seem to be at the root of much of the Islamist trouble in the world.
Syria had pluralism?
Syria has always had strong-man rule, pluralism has not a darned thing to do with it. The strong-man is being challenged, and the better-equipped faction (or factions) are routinely suppressing all other factions. The assaults on the small Christian minority, or the few Jewish residents, are not necessarily coming from Bashar al-Assad; much more likely from the faction in league with the Muslim Brotherhood, or Hezbollah, or Hamas. The less militant Muslim sects are also under assault, a little “cleansing”, if you will.
In the end, there can be only one.
what happens when US policy makers lay down with dogs, for some presumed expedient advantage, and then just walk away when the whole mess is over and the objectives of the new powers are not in sync with ours
we have no business “helping” what we do not have total control over
we can and do often “make the difference” but what is obtained with our support can be nothing we wanted, unless, like we did with Japan, we are in total control
otherwise, support the refugees, that’s it