We still are supporting corrupt governments in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia. the UAE. Kuwait's no democratic oasis.
We support governments that oppose Iran - because the Iranians threw out their American puppet, and our diplomatic staff, 40 years ago. We support states that have oil reserves; we didn't care much about Iraq until they tried to grab some oil. We didn't care - at all - about Syria until ISIS grew out of our Iraq fiasco... and then we got involved by supporting assorted rebel groups, most of whom are no more democratic or moderate than the government they opposed. We still don't care at all about Yemen.
We support Israel, pretty much regardless of Israeli behavior, because American politicians: 1) feel guilt about abandoning Jewish refugees before WWII (although that sentiment is clearly waning, as "America First" re-emerges); and 2) are afraid of the American Jewish lobby. We pay lip service to Israel as the region's only "democracy," and look the other way as they create an apartheid state, which is the antithesis of democracy.
As for Syria... sadly, the reality is that there's precious little the United States can do to ameliorate the suffering there... but much we can do (and have done) to exacerbate it, by arming everybody and his brother in a multi-faceted civil war. As reprehensible as he may be, Assad did not "cause" the Syrian civil war; that's due to a combination of drought and failed crops, and the government's limited ability to address that crisis, coupled with foreign political interference - principally by Saudi Arabia and to a lesser extent Turkey encouraging displaced rural Syrians to rebel violently, largely because Assad had the support of Iran... who they oppose for a combination of religious and regional hegemonic reasons. And there's little Washington can do about it; we don't have the political will, and may not have the capacity to just impose a pax Americana there - we're seriously stretched militarily as it is. (You can tell by the fact that we've been calling up National Guard units to serve in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in supporting missions in places like Qatar and Kuwait. You don't use the National Guard overseas in hot zones if you have regular Army available; you do that because you're stretched.)
The United States needs to seriously re-think our objectives in the Middle East, and how we pursue those objectives. Now, it's obvious that the Trump Administration isn't going to do that - they don't appear to be capable of seriously considering anything. You get what you vote for, and just enough Americans voted for an incompetent charlatan, a con man - so that's what we've got. Just pray he doesn't cause a much larger military conflagration before we can rid ourselves of him and his cronies.