It’s the vogue now to choose your political loyalties mainly to counter where US alliances are–or where you think they are. The distinctions between words & deeds get all mixed up. That works on the protoplasmic level but not for complex organisms like human society.

The chief problem with that method is that what the US does becomes the preeminent, even sole, concern & powerful countries like Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, et al, lose all agency. They become mere set pieces in the grand designs of US militarism when in fact, what they do is of the greatest consequence to what is happening in the Middle East. Not to get epithetical, but ignoring their roles is what is called “orientalism.”

If there is a US grand design, it is precisely to strip countries of agency by destroying every vestige of popular democracy. Sometimes, but rarely, that includes eliminating strong-man leaders they think unmanageable. Historically the US works very well with autocrats. It’s not an issue. But to regime-change alarmists, it is solely to remove autocrats & to make that case they morph dictators like Assad into champions of the people. He’s just too stylish & western to be an autocrat who tortures people to death.