The comments of Foreign Affairs‘ readers regarding Mr. Pollack‘s plan are as interesting as the article itself.

„In what way is Assad a threat to the US? In no way whatsoever! To oust him will create carnage on an imaginable scale,“ writes a user named Alterity. „Pollack advocates for a strategy which has failed in the past, most notably in Afghanistan in the 80s, in training a mercenary army to complete US goals,“ notes another user. „To summarize the below post… the US taxpayer should be prepared, for the next decade, to shoulder an additional $175 billion just in civil assistance/security for Syria and Ukraine,“ underscores a user named Alexis Pleshcoy.