Before the U.S. invasion, this businessman – like millions of other Iraqis – was ruled by a distant dictator who had little direct influence on his life. Following what we are told to call the US "liberation" of his country, everything he did took place in the shadow cast by armed men who have given themselves permission to brutalize or kill anybody who refused to obey them.

For Mr. al-Khafaji, it made no material difference whether the checkpoint was manned by U.S. soldiers, State Department-employed mercenaries, members of Saddam's Republican Guard, or elements of a local sectarian militia. Similar conditions now exist in those sections of Iraq patrolled by cadres representing the Islamic State. The problem is the presence of people who claim the right to use aggressive violence to force others to submit to their will. The problem is not one of geography or affiliation.