Careful what you wish for. While I support pro-democracy movements in principle, in practice it's a very different kettle of fish. The rebellion that started four years ago has brought the nation and the people of Syria to their knees - hundreds of thousands dead, millions of refugees, even more millions internally displaced, and it has created the perfect conditions for the cancerous death-cult that is extremist Islam to thrive. Ridding Syria of extremist Islam (both ISIS and many of the non-ISIS rebels) is no easy task... but ridding Syria of extremist Islam and the regime is not possible - you will get one without the other. This is the intractable problem the 'moderate' (still mainly Islamist) rebels face - if they succeed in overthrowing Assad, then Syria is doomed.
Given the presence and nature of the extremist Islamist threat to Syria and the wider region, the only credible way forward is to support the Assad regime and, in return for support, aid etc., impose strict conditions on how he must proceed with reform and dealing with the FSA/pro-democracy rebels. Putin now rides to the aid of the regime, and there is nothing the West can or likely will do about it. The sad truth is that extremist Islam is the greater evil, and the even sadder truth is that it stands to gain from the pro-democracy rebellion - and no-one else.
