Why exactly should Assad be removed? I don't get it.

[araine]

So are the leaders in a LOT of countries that we don't give a shit about though.

I think ideally all countries should be governed by someone the country chose whether that's a king, a president or something else. And Ideally none of them should get away with murder.. But actually trying to forcefully remove any of them has proven a gigantic clusterfuck of a plan.

Are those leaders of countries with a shitload of oil? do they have views that are against Israel? if you check of any of those you will find that bringing democracy like we did in Iraq is the so called solution from the conservatives in USA. remember when Rumsfeld said we would be treated as liberators and this will take like 5 weeks tops.

[matt4pack]

He's more intelligent then most western politicians. You can see that with his interviews. He doesn't seem cruel or evil either unlike a saddam. Also protected minorities in Syria and is secular.

His army might do bad things but when the enemy eats the beating heart of dead soldiers what do you expect.

Most of you sound like isis cheerleaders here.

[rogueMatthias]

It's a bit silly saying he killed 200,000 Syrians. That's the casualty figure from after a many year long civil war throughout the entire country - pegging it entirely on him is ridiculous.

If you look at Assad and a lot of his history in the country, a lot of the unrest and dislike of him as a president actually came about because the people all thought he was too westernised, too weak, indecisive and not a strong enough leader. His brother was always the big strong ruthless poster child that the people loved. Asaad actually tried to protect minority religions too, which is a dangerous idea to even contemplate in most Muslim nations.

They held protests about him being in charge, and he proved that they were wrong afterall.. by shooting loads of protestors and using chemical weapons on them. At this point, the protestors rapidly.. somehow.. then became well armed and well trained militia.. somehow... /looks suspiciously at USA. Sadly, most of the rebels are far more fucked up as Assad, though Assad seems pretty happy blowing up hundreds of civilians that get in his way.

Assad has done a lot of horendous and terrible things. The problem is, the entire idea that there's good guys and bad guys in this is laughable. Every single party involved just has their own agenda; The Kurds are fighting for a new Kurdistan, the Turks are just bombing Kurds (business as usual), US is focussed on ISIS, Putin is trying to look cool infront of his friends. The "Rebels" is loose term as there are so many splintered groups that even if Assad toppled, they'd fight amongst themselves for power for the next decades. There is no winning solution anymore. Russia and others are supporting Assad because they know there aren't really any other options.

[Kallisto]

I still see people believing the lie that ISIS and the rebels are somehow one and the same. When the reality is the Rebels were the ones fighting ISIS long before Assad bothered to focus any of his troops on them.

The rebellion started because his citizens were protesting peacefully (You know something that is a human right) against the rapid increase of food prices. Assad during one of these protests had his troops open fire on them, killing many unarmed civilians in the process.

Then during the first few months many from within the military decided to pull themselves out of the army and rise up against Assad in protest of this (Like many say the US military would do in a similar situation) and started the FSA. A secular organisation whose goal was to rid Assad and bring in a democratic regime in its place. They begged for the help from the west, Russia at this time was using a hands off and ISIS was still mostly within the Iraq border regions as Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Then Al Qaeda in Iraq already on bad terms with the Al Qaeda central leadership entered Syria without permission from the central body, Syrian Al Qaeda already decided to get in on the play while FSA and Assad forces began fighting. At the start the FSA did fine, but Assad knowing he could win the propagander war had his forces ignore the two Al Qaeda groups, this was made so he could bring out the "All my enemies are terrorists" argument. Al Qaeda in Iraq over the time started fighting the Syria group and FSA group, gaining ground on both. Becoming excommunicated from al-Zawahiri (Who replaced Bin Laden) for being too extreme went through a number of name changes till they became Islamic state and started to gain ground that Assad pulled back from.

Meanwhile Assad used chemical weapons on pure civilian targets, the FSA was being attacked by all sides pretty much harming their chance of victory while the Kurds fortified up and pushed back ISIS whenever they tried to attack Kurdish areas. Pretty much now to present day where the lines are drawn.

[Mavett]

Some people are quick to forget about the events that led to the conflict to begin with, he ordered to mow down HIS OWN PEOPLE who were simply protesting with the hopes to quell the protest and not let it unfold into the scenario that other Arab countries were facing.
His actions backfired badly and unfolded into what we have now, people are just falling into the charm offensive with his calm and coherent interviews and repeating his ongoing fight against ISIS..a group which wasn't really in the picture until lately.

He is no longer the lesser evil to govern Syria when the entire thing is over, Syria as an entity is pretty much gone it's just a plot of land that acts as an underground no rules fight pit.

[Powerogue]

The middle east is seemingly incapable of forming a democracy.

The key thing I think we in the US forget is that we chose to form a democracy when we were forming this country. They're not choosing anything when we topple their existing government that they're used to and try to force a foreign system on them.