The posting on Moral Dilemma, though meant initially as a joke (though not taken that way by all) brought me to pose a real thought to anyone who cares to run the gauntlet on it.
It's based also on my reading recently a book entitled "What If?" which takes several historical situations and theorizes on alternate endings, based on the change of one fact, such as the death of a principle player in a battle, or as head of a government.

Cutting to the chase here- how much responsibility can be laid at the feet of one individual?

This is a good time to look at this question. There are some obvious people to examine-Hitler perhaps on one end of the spectrum, along with Kenghis Kahn, Napoleon, Julius Caesar,...down to Saddam, Bin Laden, etc...over to religious leaders (semi fictional or not),Jesus, Muhammed, Mahatma Gandi,...to political leaders of our century...pick the ones you think were the greatest driving force.

If these men (and that in itself is an important issue-the far far greater amount of people will be deemed to be men on anyone's list) had not led...would the synchroncity and social/political structure of the times-led to much the same results? Would the thoughts carried into action by one man be enough to change everything?