Chaos in Syria - Victory for radicals not a solution

It is a characteristic of despots whose time as a supreme leader, unquestioned and all-powerful, nears an inevitable and bloody end that they grow ever more careless of the welfare of the people they once imagined loyal, happy citizens of their autocracy.

Sadly, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, after nearly two years of civil war, seems to be no different to those other tyrants — Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Hosni Mubarak, Robert Mugabe, and Kim Jong-un — whose removal from power cost, or more than likely will cost, the lives of thousands if not tens of thousands of their fellow countrymen.

The recent report from UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay, which concluded that at least 60,000 people have died in Syria’s conflict, puts al-Assad in an unenviable category in modern history, even in the bloody modern history of his embittered, divided region.