The unfolding disaster in Iraq is a difficult problem to solve, as we have pointed out. But it's one that many everyday Americans feel a real stake in. Nowhere is this more evident than in Cher's tweets from this afternoon.

The group of Sunni militants that have stormed Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, or ISIL), issued a new edict today proclaiming the creation of a new religious state in Iraq and Syria, a "caliphate" that holds supreme rule over all Muslims. The group's leader, Abu Baker al-Baghdadi, has be declared "caliph," or the supposed successor of the Prophet Mohammed. The insurgents have also abandoned the names ISIS and ISIL and will now refer to themselves as The Islamic State.