Chemical weapons potential: Check.
Smaller nations and rebel groups used as proxies by Great Powers: Check.
Potential for other nations to be sucked into the conflict: Check.

The title here comes from a John McCutcheon song used in a video done as a 6th grade class project. To judge by this video, somewhere out there is a teacher named Mr. Cutler who is doing a very, very good job. The students were studying World War I, and they combined vivid and powerful images of that war and the ongoing war in Iraq with an equally powerful song by folk singer John McCutcheon called “Christmas in the Trenches.”

On this New Year’s morning, may peace be upon you all.