Points well made, smuj, and I think no few American tax payers feel as you do. As I noted a few weeks back, supporting Jordan and their effort to aid and deal with refugees ought to be the focus of American efforts in the area for two reasons:
It's a humanitarian mess that risks becoming worse
It's a condition that can potentially destabilize Jordan, who have been a decent ally for some time
It's a good way to show that Americans care about the people in the area. That message isn't always well made. Feeding weapons to rebels who are as likely to be allies of Al Q as not seems a poor long term strategy.
The US has for a variety of "realist" reasons put up with despots of various sorts and quality for decades. Why Assad is especially unworthy to be worked with needs a bit better explanation to me, given some of the thugs we've supported over the years to advance our larger interests.
