"Despite the rising cry for intervention, U.S. observers also
note that much of the current fighting involves various U.S. enemies who are
attacking each other: Sunni jihadists in Syria are being joined by Iraqi Sunni
insurgents across the border who are now sometimes fighting Hezbollah Shiites,
as well as the Assad government. If it were not that tens of thousands of
innocents are being killed and wounded, the conflict could almost be considered
a "net gain" at this point in terms of "cold calculations of national interest,"
says Douglas Ollivant, the former director for Iraq at the National Security
Council during the Bush and Obama administrations."