forty years ago i didn't think much of buchanan but over the years that has changed. its somewhat like what mark twain is reported as saying that as a sixteen year old kid he found his father to be somewhat less aware and intelligent than he hoped and by the time twain had grown to twenty one he was surprised at how much his father had learned. in this opinion buchanan hits the bulls eye squarely;


"Assad must go, Obama says."
So read the headline in the Washington Post, August 18, 2011.
The story quoted President Barack Obama directly:

"The future of Syria must be determined by its people, but President Bashar al-Assad is standing in their way. ... the time has come for President Assad to step aside."

France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain's David Cameron signed on to the Obama ultimatum: Assad must go!
Seven years and 500,000 dead Syrians later, it is Obama, Sarkozy and Cameron who are gone. Assad still rules in Damascus, and the 2,000 Americans in Syria are coming home. Soon, says President Donald Trump.
But we cannot "leave now," insists Sen. Lindsey Graham, or "the Kurds are going to get slaughtered."
Question: Who plunged us into a Syrian civil war, and so managed our intervention that were we to go home after seven years our enemies will be victorious and our allies will "get slaughtered"?
Seventeen years ago, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban for granting sanctuary to al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden. 
...............https://vdare.com/articles/patrick-j-buchanan-how-the-war-party-lost-the-middle-east?scroll_to_paragraph=13