I think the take away Destro is trying to get at is it is good we didn’t fully commit to Syria. At least, that is what I’m happy about.

I’m surprised that nobody has tried to take the other side. From what I can tell there were people in the WH that argued for committing serious resources on the side of the rebels in order to deny Al-Qaeda and Jihadists a combat space to build up and train forces.

Personally, I think doing that would simply have masked those activities like they did in Libya. Committing western power behind “secular” forces might have dampened Al-Qaeda/Jihadi activities here, at least for awhile, but it wouldn’t have prevented it. And how much it would have suppressed AQ is questionable at best.