Ohmygawd, what an unbalanced vitriolic op-ed from a man who espouses that journalists must maintain a high moral ground in the search for truth and justice and then presenting the facts in a clear and concise manner.
Brett fails, big time, in my humble estimation.

"Assad’s depravity"

There's plenty of depravity to go around in the world of leaders that the US calls allies. Let's just start with a certain US president fraudulently invading a ME country and causing thousands of deaths and chaos.
The seemingly irrational US policy of destabilizing secular tolerant ME countries, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and causing a power vacuum filled by Islamic nut cases, while supporting a deranged Saudi Arabia, is beyond patriotic belief.

After this article, I vote that Brett's journalists license be revoked, and he officially declare himself a commentator with a personal biased viewpoint!