"However allocating blame for the situation having arisen is no easy task. "
It is if you are interested in the subject
Syria is in the hands of a despot who has been torturing and killing his opponents and ordinary Syrian people who got in his way for several decades - we know this from Amnesty reports (one of which you have been given).
Assad al Bashir's response to the Arab Spring protests was extreme and Britain decided to turn the other way and do nothing when the killing escalated in Homs - there's a very long and disgusting thread on it.
It's not strictly true that we completely turned our backs - our 'representatives' in Westminster were quite happy to sell riot equipment, armoured cars, water cannons.... etc., to help suppress the protests, having licensed at least one shipment of sniper ammunition previously.
The protests turned into a civil war, Russia and China vetoed U.N. action and the U.N. did nothing - our Parliament actually voted not to intervene even when the extent of the massacres were known.
Isis moved in, people with a genuine belief in modernising Syria were sucked in and, for political convenience, are now labelled "terrorists", which they are not.
The British establishment has now, humanitarian as they are, turned their backs on the refugees driven out by the conflict and Eorope is carrying dead children OUT of the SEA.
The great danger now is that, once Isis is defeated the opposition forces will begin fighting each other.
If there had been significant supplies of oil involved, none of this would have been allowed to happen - the U.S, marines would have been up the beach faster than a Bondi surfer and we'd have been right there behind them to blow their noses and wipe their bums.
Western Governments never did let Humanitarian considerations get in the way of political and economic self-interest.
There - not complicated at all really.
Now - what's your version of events?
Please don't patronise me, but by all means feel free to provide alternative information to fill in my ignorance.
Jim Carroll