violence was intended to be a message to the animals of Rawafdh Shiiteand their government. Al Qaeda in Iraq -LRB- AQI -RRB- was once described by the U.S. military before it withdrew from Iraq in 2011 as being on the run. But that clearly is no longer the case. To start with, Iraq security forces were never capable of containing the security gains of the U.S.-military era. AQI and other Sunni extremist groups have capitalized on the predominantly Shiite-led government's failure to bring Sunnis into the political fold. Iraq's Sunni population maintains that it is being systematically targeted by government forces and grows more alienated and disenfranchised by the day. And Iraq remains a nation where violence and politics go hand in hand. AQI has also expanded its operations into Syria under the umbrella of Al Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant -LRB- Syria -RRB-. Its head, who goes by the pseudonym Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi or Abu Dua'a, among others, is believed to be mostly operating out of Syria. But al Qaeda's resurgence and its operations are just one part of the messy and vicious patchwork of forces that govern this part of the world at the expense of the civilian population sucked into an existential battle that started millennia ago. Those forces include the ongoing regional struggle pitting Shiite Iran against Sunni Saudi Arabia and Qatar -- regional powerhouse who have found