Yeah, that's not the first time the US flirts with extremists and dictators. Mubarak, Hussein, bin Laden and Gaddafi have all been "USA kind of guys" at some point. If I see photos of Kerry and al-Assad at McDonald's together, it makes me think that Kerry is a hypocrite, instead of making me think of al-Assad as an all-around nice fellow.
The regime that has been in power in Syria has been far from harmless. The rebels and protesters themselves have said that to them, it's insulting to say that the atrocities in Syria will just begin with foreign intervention. I guess you can call it pretty harmless, if you only take to consideration their foreign policy, but the conflict started because of the situation that the regime created for the syrians themselves.
The same regime has been in power since the coup in 1970. That means 40+ years under a dictatorship that came to power through a coup d'etat. Human rights have never meant nothing for the al-Assad family. Even if they were decent leaders, you have to realizie that 40 years in power will alienate any establishment from the rest of the population. You have to bear in mind that the Syrian uprising began during the Arab spring. People in some reasons decided to fight against the regimes they've been oppressed by for decades. Surely islamists of different types are involved, it's a region where islam is the leading religion.
I'm not pro-war. I'm anti-Assad. Would things go my way, we'd see secular anti-authoritarians gaining victory over the regime and establishing a new egalitarian political system. But that won't happen, the next best scenario for me, is getting rid of al-Assad by any means and hoping it goes well afterwards.