How did americans view the battle of new orleans?
a. as a great victory, even though it came after the war officially ended
b. as a tragedy, because so many american lives were lost
c. as a victory, even though they lost the port of new orleans
d. as a stalemate, because neither side could claim a victory

Struggles between Sunni and Shia forces have fed a Syrian civil war that threatens to transform the map of the Middle East, spurred violence that is fracturing Iraq and widened fissures in a number of tense Gulf countries. Growing sectarian clashes have also sparked a revival of transnational jihadi networks that poses a threat beyond the region.

Islam’s schism, simmering for 14 centuries, doesn’t explain all the political, economic and geostrategic factors involved in these conflicts, but it has become one prism by which to understand the underlying tensions.