It's good that we're friends with Putin and World War 3 was prevented. Now when all those Syrians are gassed we don't have to worry about it.
I will not defend Assad. His regime is disgusting, its indiscriminate bombing of civilians and aid workers is indefensible, and his stance on Israel and support for and from North Korea is, to understate it, disturbing. However, rashly removing him from power is going to open up the same can of worms we've opened twice before, first when we killed Saddam Hussein, and again when Gaddafi was overthrown. Both of these people were deplorable, violent, even genocidal dictators, but the political vacuum they left behind killed far,
far more people than they ever possibly could have.
The situation in Syria is much worse, because they have the direct backing of Russia, and an attack on the Assad regime would very likely lead to conflict with Russia. Russia knows they cannot defeat America in a conventional war. They've proven they know this during the Cold War, which was narrowly defused by the Kennedy administration. I don't know about you, but I get the feeling Trump's administration is going to lack the political and strategic experience to defuse such a situation if it were to arise again. The argument can be put forth that in the instance of a conflict between America and Russia, Russia's only hope of preserving itself as a world power would be to go nuclear
immediately. Would you risk nuclear war with Russia to dethrone Assad? Would you sentence millions of people to death to do what you believe is the right thing?
I'm not suggesting we sit back and do nothing, however. Even from a purely self-centered point of view, it isn't in our own best interests either. However, direct conflict with Assad should be out of the question. At best, it creates yet another political vacuum in the Middle East, thousands of people get killed, and an opportunity arises for another ISIS-like group to emerge dominant. At worst, nuclear war between two superpowers with enough weapons between them to destroy every square mile of habitable land on the planet.
I don't like Assad either and I agree Syria needs to be liberated, but I'm not so eager to overthrow him that I'd see it reduced to a smouldering radioactive crater to that end.