The downside I can see is Assad is known quantity that keeps his country in check, all be it secretive, one wonders if he is deposed how the stability of the region will swing.
There is no getting around the fact that somewhere along the line the West or Russia or the late USSR is arming them, all be it from aid given to other countries in the past, or to Syria in itself..
The west needs to learn to stand back and let them get on with it, then talk with whoever comes out as winners, all we have done in the past is destabilised countries, go back a short while and you could have possible wandered around parts of Iraq, Libya etc free from worry that you would be killed, try that now. Fine we went in with the best of intentions and stuck our nose in where it didn't belong, but in all honesty what has it got us, hideous debt and a Government driven fear of terror in the UK that simply allows them to snoop on the populace under that pretext.
In my eyes we lost the war the day we got paranoid about safety at home and started to respond to it in the way we have, terrorists one, UK PLC zero.
Last edited by NutLoose; 23rd Aug 2013 at 19:56.