The Obama Administration has had a private turn-around on the situation in Syria. After years of pushing rebels in general as an alternative to the Assad government, the US is now keen to expand their new Iraq War into Syria to attack the largest of those rebels, ISIS.
The US has even taken to sharing intelligence with the Assad government on targets, which is quite a turn when less than a year ago they were pushing hard to invade Syria to oust Assad.
The Assad government is eager for US aid, but wants it publicly. The US has ruled out doing so, and is now considering, among its options, attacking both ISIS and Assad targets to avoid tipping the scales in Assad’s favor.
It’s a preposterous idea, but would be in keeping with the long-standing US policy of arming the rebels enough to keep them from being overrun without ousting Assad outright. If the US goal of keeping Syria a calamitous warzone remains intact, officials could decide that just bombing everybody is the simplest solution.
The stated US goal of wiping out ISIS would make preventing Assad from getting more powerful than them all but impossible, and would ensure that the US war is not just open-ended, but permanent.