I wasn't in the US for the Syrian Civil War. Why was there so much hate and vitriol for President Assad? It's like every American politician wanted him gone, but by regional standards he's pretty innocuous (I think he was like an eye doctor before he more or less inherited his presidency).
The original neocon plan was a series of dominos to lead up to the toppling of Iran. The pacification of Iraq would enable the invasion of Syria, which would allow the complete encirclement of Iran.
This plan failed when Iraq devolved into a quagmire, but the neo-cons spent the entire Iraq War blaming Syria (and Iran) for the insurgency.
That makes even more sense: he must be evil because he defied neocon expectations.