Iraq and Syria are different situations but I would not be surprised to see Assad use whatever means are at his disposal to stop himself from meeting the same end as Gaddafi or Hussien. One major difference between those instances (where the US did intervene) and Syria is that the Assad regime will likely receive support from Russia and Iran.
While Russia is a shell of its former self militarily, Putin, has made the support of the Assad regime into an issue of national pride and any military intervention would have to take that into consideration. Additionally, while Syria, is predominately Sunni, the entire Assad family is Shi’ite…as is Hezbolloh…as is Iran and about 60 percent of the Iraqi population. This might not mean shit to us in the US, but one could expect Iran to provide material support through northern Iraq into Syria should the US invade. Who knows what Hezbollah’s response would be? We do know that they withstood the onslaught of the IDF in 2006 (which is something no Arab army has ever done) and in 1983 killed 243 US marines, forcing Regan to pull out of Lebenon.
A third block of power to take into consideration is the Al Nasruh front, which is currently devastating the Assad regime, but would love nothing more than an opportunity to attack American soldiers. An article that I read today
provides an excellent summation of the campaign they have carried out over the course of the last year against the Shi’ite, Assad regime. I don’t expect anybody to actually read that unless they are very interested in this subject.
I’ll sum it up quickly: The Al Nasrah front, at its core is Al Qaeda in Iraq moved west. Al Qaeda is a
Sunni organization. Roughly a year ago Zawahiri (the leader of AQ) gives the green light to attack the
Shi'ite, Assad regime. Since then jihadists from all over the world have been pouring into that region and causing complete chaos and Assad is probably scared of almost everybody around him. If there is one attack to read about, it is
this one here which IMO, is the most devastating one of its kind ever executed. The Al Nasrah front routinely conducts joint operations with the FSA (Free Syrian Army) which is now fighting what can be considered a conventional war against the Assad regime.
There's nothing in Syria that I can see which would make dealing with that mess worth it.