State Department policy on Syria is regime change going back to at least 2011. The method/means is still fluid. See the article and State Department testimony

State Department policy on Syria is regime change going back to at least 2011. The method/means is still fluid. See the article and State Department testimony below, emphasis mine. NYT, from 2013: "Last summer, as the fighting in Syria raged and questions about the United States’ inaction grew, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton conferred privately with David H. Petraeus, the director of the C.I.A. The two officials were joining forces on a plan to arm the Syrian resistance. The idea was to vet the rebel groups and train fighters, who would be supplied with weapons. The plan had risks, but it also offered the potential reward of creating Syrian allies with whom the United States could work, both during the conflict and ___after President Bashar al-Assad’s eventual removal___. Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Petraeus presented the proposal to the White House, according to administration officials. But with the White House worried about the risks, and with President Obama in the midst of a re-election bid, they were rebuffed." http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/us/politics/in-behind-scene-blows-and-triumphs-sense-of-clinton-future.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/us/politics/in-behind-scen... From 2011, testimony by Jeffrey Feltman, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, State Department: "But we take the advent of the [Syrian National Council] very seriously, and we support the broader opposition’s efforts to focus on the critical task of expanding and consolidating its base of support within Syria by articulating a clear and common vision and ___developing a concrete and credible post-Assad transition plan.___" http://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Jeffrey_Feltman_Revised.pdf http://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Jeffrey_Feltman_...