Assad Jr. was treating his people badly.1. Syria
A country smaller than the state of Victoria with almost the exact same population as Australia (22.5 million to our 23 million) which borders Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon. Syria has both deserts and fertile areas and is steeped in history dating back to biblical times.
10 simple points to help you understand the Syria conflict
Big Brother USA aka BHO stuck their CIA nose into it and tried to topple him.
This led to civil war and now there is a mess that Russia/Putin is trying to clean up.
Assad Jr. like Saddam is going to need to murder a lot of his own people to come out of this alive.
However the mess in Syria is nothing compared to the mess the CIA created in Ukraine.