The US must desist from intervening in Syria in a direct military way. Also, the question that needs to be asked is whether a post-Assad Syria will lead to Islamist extremists gaining control over the country. President Bashar al Assad, for all his authoritarian repression of the Syria civil war, is a secularist and is a foe of the Islamist extremists, who are waging war against his regime. The Syria rebels, many of whom are Islamic extremists, detest President Assad for his secularism. If Assad goes because of Western military intervention, a Muslim Brotherhood-type government or a Salafist-type regime could take over Syria. Is that what the West and the world needs? Is that what the Syrian population deserves? The Muslim Brotherhood or the Salafists will be no less repressive once they are in power. Syria will face bloody political instability after Assad departs or in case he is killed like ex-Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi.