re: Pres. Obama's Speech This Morning... We're still going after Assad.

LINK

This is a September 4, 2014 opionion piece from Aljazeera America. I found it will trying to research about the dynamics of different groups in Syria and the ME. I found it interesting.

"As an alternative to razing Assad’s Ba’athist regime, the White House has long touted a transition model similar to Yemen, whereby the government would be left largely intact but Assad would be forced to resign. This is also a bad idea. Assad has served, however inefficiently, as a reformer — or at least as a bulwark against the more aggressive elements of the “deep state,” such as the mukhabarat (intelligence services) and shabiha (pro-government civilian militias). Hence, if Assad was removed, while leaving much of his government in place, we could expect a similar outcome in Syria as in post-Mubarak Egypt: The worst elements of the regime would rise up to fill the vacuum, undermining any transitional government and erasing even the modest reforms instituted under the longstanding ruler. Today, Egyptian leader Abdel Fatah El Sisi is a more repressive despot than Mubarak ever was. Similarly, someone more tyrannical than Assad could as easily replace him from within the Ba’athist party apparatus."