You know what? It's simply a fact that Assad is killing people

[cali]

indiscriminately. You may not like that fact, but unless you are so ideologically blinded that you can't see anything that doesn't fit with your biases, you know that's factual. It's documented up the yin yang. Citizens, reporters, NGOs, etc., all confirm that.

Acknowledging this doesn't mean one supports any sort of military intervention.

One of the things that really gets me is the crap I'm seeing all too frequently here about how the Syrian people back the gov't and how the protesters are terrorists- yes, I've seen that opined here on more than one occasion, or how the civil war in Syria is an Imperialist plot.

Assad is a bad actor clinging to power. That doesn't excuse western imperialism. It doesn't negate the ugly history of U.S. interference and intervention in the Middle East, but the Assad gov't has been oppressive for some time- and that's largely what people are protesting against. They did it in Egypt and other countries. Why is it so unfathomable that they'd do so in Syria?