Bobcat,
Iraq needed overthrowing, I'm surprised I'm even having to tell you that. Saddam Hussein gassed and mass-murdered his own people, invaded Kuwait for the oil and Saudi Arabia was next on the list. The US and other nations did a damn fine job of finishing him off.
Assad's also a mass murderer, so was his father, he needs the firing squad as well and the sooner the better, the problem is it's all tribal, but in the end, he'll go, and it won't be pleasant.
"American mercenaries on the ground in Eastern Ukraine"? Where do you get this stuff from, let me guess, Zerohedge?
Conspiracy theories are all part and parcel of goldbug psychology.