Yesterday, as Syria’s bloody conflict marked its fifth horrific year and shortly before President Vladimir Putin announced the withdrawal of some Russian troops from the country, we asked members of the YouGov First Verdict panel to identify who was responsible for initiating the tragic loss of an estimated 500,000 lives and, secondly, who had most responsibility for ending the civil war.
Most blamed President Assad’s violent putdown of protests against his regime for provoking the crisis and half thought militant Islamic groups had a “significant” responsibility. 41% pointed to the “civil war” within Islam between the Shia and Sunni interpretations of the Muslim faith. Only 19% blamed US interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq for destabilising the region.
In terms of bringing some kind of peace to Syria, other nations of the region (30%), the United Nations (29%) and Islamic holy leaders (23%) were all judged to have a bigger role to play than the USA. Only 16% of the YouGov panel members thought America had “most” responsibility for ending the war.
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‘I’m personally convinced that our civilisation is approaching its end,’ wrote the British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge in 1980. ‘I think of St Augustine when, in AD 410, the news was brought to him in Carthage that Rome had been sacked by the Barbarians.’ Jim Callaghan was equally gloomy. In 1974, he remarked: ‘When I am […]
Josiah Quincy Jr., who was the mayor of Boston in the middle of the nineteenth century, wrote in his Last Will and Testament that his son should read ‘John Locke’s works, – Lord Bacon’s works, – Gordon’s Tacitus, – and Cato’s Letters. May the spirit of liberty rest upon him!’ Indeed, there is nothing closer […]
