I don't really understand your point Jim, surely if the West had removed Assad in the manner that we removed Gadaffi, the whole of Syria would now be under IS rule?

Assad and the West are at last fighting together against these head chopping monsters.....Assad said right from the beginning that the uprising was started by Islamic terrorists using a few "liberal useful idiots" as a smoke screen just as they did in every other country in the Middle East and North Africa.

No sensible person thinks that Western "democracy" can be transplanted into tribal cultures.....in my opinion even our leaders know that and de-stabilisation is their goal, but they have started to realise that the genie will not go back into the bottle.