Syria's Assad Will Get An Advantage From An Attack or Even The Threat Of An Attack By The U.S.

To the point:

1.  Assad will rally protests in the streets against an Imperialist U.S. attacking an Arab Country in the Middle East.

2.  Assad will "call-in" his "alliance" cards with Russia and China.

3.  The Assad regime will be "resolved" against the West and accuse the U.S. of meddling in Middle East/Syria affairs.

4.  Assad will accuse the U.S. of wanting a foot-hold in the Middle East, claim a conspiracy of U.S. and Israel against Syria, and call for "Arab Unity" against foreign invaders in the way that was promoted by Abdel Nasser.

5  Extended Note:

The Muslim Middle East strategy is to own both sides of a conflict, and the manifestation of this is the apparency of Sunni and Shia conflicts throughout the world.  There are Sunni-Shia conflicts, but both factions, are in the end, Muslim.  Muslim culture accepts the conflict, but understand that in the end, Muslims will unite against non-Muslims to defeat their enemies. The "conflict" strategy involves trapping opponents in one or another of the factions, to bring them into the fight and then fight a war of attrition against its "ally."

Obama has stepped into this ruse, and/or due to his loyalties and political preferences is complicit in the "trap," and with his continuing support of the "Arab Spring" is perpetuating U.S. involvement in the Arab quagmire.  U.S. involvement in the Syrian conflict, and any other conflict in Muslim countries will result only in results similar to the outcome of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama has shown in the past that he is not enamored with Israel, to say the least.  A U.S. attack on Syria will prompt "justified" retaliation against Israel.

Israel will not sit back and be attacked, and when it launches retaliatory attacks against Israel's attackers, Arab sentiment will solidify against the U.S. and Israel.

Just today the Brits pulled out of any agreement to attack Syria. So did Jordan.

The Russians, who have had a minimal footprint in the Middle East, will capitalize on the U.S. attack by securing a larger beach head in Syria, and then in the Middle East.

Russian, Chinese, and Iranian Influence will increase due to the U.S. Threat or Actual attack.

The Russian, Chinese, and Iranian propaganda will tout a victory for their axis, and launch a stronger campaign (than they have now) against U.S. financial interests in the region, including an attack on U.S. petro-dollars, and the significances tied to that phenomenon internationally.

It is unfathomable that a U.S. President and/or his advisors and anyone in the Obama administration has not weighed any of these factors.  Assuming that they have, then they are deliberately setting up the U.S. for a military, political, and financial gargantuan loss.

The fears of World War III are probably unwarranted, unless one is counting on madness in the Russian and Chinese spheres.  However, a holocaust of political, military, and financial loss will ensue against the U.S. because of this Obama "blunder."

Please note that this "blunder" is in keeping with the Obama objective to make the U.S. equal to its enemies, by weakening the U.S. militarily, financially, and politically.