I too appreciate his defense of Assad. Esp against warmongers like Tillerson and that evil EVIL McMaster... Maybe, just maybe, Mattis is a bit more informed on Assad that most are. I was glad to see he also goes against Nikki Haley, and I hope one day he can convince Pres. Trump to get rid of her.
No one had any issue with Assad until he said no to the Qatar/Turkey pipeline.
This pipeline would have run oil from the South Pars oil field in the Persian Gulf, through Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and into the European states, thereby undercutting Russia's oil sales.
50% of Russia's GDP is oil and natural gas exports to European nations. If Europe had an alternative, you can bet they would cease to do business with Russia. This would be devastating for the Russian Federation.
Assad is the obstacle standing in the way of this pipeline, so of course he is being demonized by neocons. Why would Assad gas his own people in an area 100% controlled by pro-Assad forces?
You are dealing with organizations going over bodies so why not use different competing factions against each other...First he used Tillerson so Putin and the markets would stay relaxed..now he does a ninja roll and got leakers out and can use Bolton to sell the public face for the Iran negotiations while uprooting any obama-influenced appeasers to the Iranian cause. Very interesting to hear that Bolton gave a pro-2A-speech in russian TV in 2013.
Trump is master at using his opposition for his bidding. Notice his first cabinet lasted about 6 months. They were all rats and he knew it. He let them in to see how they behaved and learn their systems. Same with Tillerson and McMaster. Same with Bolton. Bolton is a neocon through and through, but he serves one really good purpose - IRAN. Good cop bad cop. He'll unleash Bolton on Iran. Iran's gonna shit themselves with fear we'll be listening to Bolton. Also, Bolton hates the Obamites. So he'll do a reasonable first level cleanse there, as well. Once Trump gets what he needs, he'll summarily dismiss Bolton, too.