Tacky apologist casuistry. Syrian prisons are dire places and dissidents were being thrown in them. I’m not even using that to justify US involvement — I don’t need to — they are crimes against humanity a priori and fait accompli and you are trying to minimise them and far worse by painting Assad as some poor misunderstood innocent with your propaganda photos of the family man and the white washing. The crimes of the US simply do not require Assad to be portrayed as a saint in order to still be crimes. It’s a false dilemma. So why are you doing it?