You just opened my eyes to a possibility that I should have been aware of: It's true that tyrants do a better job than democracy in the Middle East at this point in time. As we all know by now, removing Saddam Hussein created turmoil in the Middle East and a vacuum that gave birth to ISIS. But I had never applied this principle to Syria; I kept seeing Syria's Bashar the pre-Iraq way, i.e. as a (very cruel) tyrant that has to be removed. But you might have a point: In the grand scheme of things, maybe it's better to leave him there. Either way, it's horrible.