Assad or al-Qaeda associates to control Damascus?

While the world was focusing on Ukraine and Gaza and Lebanon and Georgia and Romania and France and all the other places currently facing mayhem, a very large and well-trained bunch of armed fanatics, associated, among others, with the al-Qaeda terrorist organisation (which still exists!), has been plotting and planning to take over Syria. They have done so well that they are now within rocket-firing distance of Damascus. It's an extraordinary development which has taken the world by surprise and certainly taken Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad by surprise. He ran off to Moscow for help. Now we're in a situation, in the West, of wondering whether it's better to have this new lot in Damascus, with all their unfavourable links to the worst ideological groups around, or to have Assad, backed by Moscow and Iran, ruling the roost in the Syrian capital. There are still about 900 American troops in Syria, doing what they do with the remnants of Isis, so they haven't got involved. But what happens if the al-Qaeda look-alikes succeed in toppling Assad's regime? Will the US troops stay or will Washington pull them out? That'll probably be a question for the 47th president, Donald Trump.