My questions were rhetorical, but I agree with your post Fergie.

Assad will remain in power. The US does not go to war for humanitarian reasons, not in Syria, and not anywhere else.

America has a tendency to be short sighted in our foreign interventions, and often doesn't seem to be aware of cause and effect, and how things may play out. This is something you can see going all the way back to United Fruit, or the Mossadegh coup. Lather, rnse, repeat, etc.