The Wars In Iraq And Syria Have Merged Into A Single Conflict

After this week, it no longer makes sense to think of the civil conflicts in Iraq and Syria as separate events. They are now a single war, both in their operational details and in the broader forces driving both conflicts. An Al Qaeda offshoot's major offensive this week shows that the battle lines, and the motives of the various sides in the Iraq and Syria upheavals, have effectively merged — this is one conflict, engulfing the oil-producing heart of the Arab Middle East. This week, the Islam...