Syria's war is our war

Or, as Euronews's intenational affairs correspondent puts it, "Syria’s war has always been Europe’s problem". It is more partiuularly the UK's war because we early sided with President Obama in encouraging an armed opposition to Syria's ruling family. The failure of the uprising resulted in a surge of refugees headed for European countries, including the UK.

The story officially begins ten years ago when organised antigovernment protests were held in various cities in Syria and outside Syrian legations in several foreign capitals. Things came to a head on March 24, 2011, when many protesters were killed when security forces open fire on a demonstration in Darʿā.

(NB Two years later when Egyptian forces opened fire on protesters killing over fifty of them, there were no calls in the West for an insurrection.)

There is a useful timeline on Britannica's pages. To read it, you will need to be a member of Britannica Online or exempt Britannica from ad-blocking.