10 More Deserving Winners Of Time's "Person Of The Year" Than The Pope

7. Bashar Al-Assad

Where did it all go wrong for Syria? As hundreds of thousands flee the once strong and proud nation, sectarian fighting continues unabated. Countless thousands are dead and dying as the country heads towards a final and total collapse. Although it has become difficult to ascertain just who or what is to blame, one man stands as the representation of Syria's ills: President Bashar Al-Assad. Trained in London as an ophthalmologist and married to a successful investment banker, Al-Assad reticently inherited the Presidency from his deceased father in 2000. The post was due to be taken by his older brother Bassel, but his untimely death in a car crash meant that this seemingly shy and nervous man of medicine was propelled into a position of power in one of the world's most unpredictable regions. Initially determined to strike a peace deal with Israel and attempt to patch together the multiple and long-standing rifts between the Muslim sects that live in Syria, things began to unravel at an alarming from 2011 onwards as the first harrowing reports of violence filtered through to the rest of the world. This violent civil war has left the world standing and staring, its politics bleeding through to the USA and UK as their respective governments bicker over whether to intervene or not. Meanwhile, Russia and China pledge public support both politically and militarily. Al-Assad may or may not be the root cause of this conflict, but his profile and chilling calm throughout proceedings has planted him as the visual representation of a Middle East that seems determined to slide into an oblivion of its own making.