Rather than attack the motives, intelligence or humanity of anyone trying to understand the current situation in Syria and chart a policy path that is in America's best interests, let's be open to different approaches and make fair assessments.  One option is to continue to try to topple Assad but seems to me that train has left the station.  Another is to back off, accept that Assad stays and cede the initiative to the Syrian/Russian victors, which would leave us without leverage and influence.  A third option (there are more but these three seem to cover the ground fairly well) is for us to put on our big boy pants and engage with the key players (Putin, Assad, Erdogan, Iraq, Israel, even Iran) to achieve the limited goal of deflating ISIS and achieve some temporary stability and peace in the region.  Tulsi has made a good faith effort to move the dialouge in that direction.  Let's relax and wait to see what Congress and the Trump administration does.