Throughout the Syrian war, President Obama has insisted that President Bashar Assad must go. But now, the U.S. may want, or even need Assad to remain in power.
"For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside," Obama said back on Aug. 18, 2011, in his first explicit call for Assad's ouster, something the U.S. president went on to repeat on multiple occasions.
As strange as it may seem, the U.S. president now sounds more willing to tolerate Assad.
"I don't think we should remove another dictator with force," Obama said in his nationally televised speech on Sept. 10.
http://www.wbur.org/npr/223044856/does-the-u-s-want-bashar-assad-to-stay-or-go