Should the US cease trying to remove Assad from power in Syria?

[Horus]

Took me awhile to come to this position, but we do need to stop.

[ingemann]

While I'm happy with the poll, I'm shocked that so many people here have learned nothing from earlier American intervention abroad. You should only intervene, if you have something on the ground represent your values or interests, if it's a clear improvement to the conflict or if USA are willing to keep a several decades long occupation with 1 soldier per inhabitants in the area occupied. none of these option are the case in Syria.

The rebels (Kurds not counted, because they're not rebels) are a mix bandits, Islamists, radical Islamists (Al Nusra) and the Islamist versions of the Nazi or Khmer Rouge (ISIS). In most of the conflict we have seen people mostly flee from rebel controlled area to regime controlled territories. In fact we more or less don't see people choosing to flee into rebel controlled areas, which tell us everything we need to know of the rebels. We have broad evidence of ethnic cleansing by the rebels, while evidence of ethnic cleansing by the regime is at best anecdotal. There's evidence of war crimes from both sides.

Just for kicks let's show a picture (safe for work) of a action by one rebel group.



That's captured Alawite civilians place in cages as human shields against Russian/SAA bombings.

Well that's the kind of people you support gaining power in Syria.

[Frodo]

What a turnaround from the last time a question like this was asked.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

Some of my Syrian friends who are not so kind to Assad do say that he does have a large amount of domestic support and that removing Assad will destroy the Syrian state and all it stands for. We never should have gotten involved in the first place.