To prevent and defend against violence targeting Americans will require understanding and addressing the larger context in which opposition to U.S. policy in the Middle East arises. This requires taking a wider view of the region to include not only the Islamic State’s atrocities but also the equally pernicious efforts by Assad and his supporters to generate deep social and political fault lines that correspond with ethnic and sectarian identities—and thus exploit them relentlessly. It requires recognizing that the vicious proxy war in Syria is fueled by outside interests, including arms industries and the deeply interdependent as well as competing military and security establishments in the United States, Turkey, Russia, Iran, Europe, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf states. It requires accounting for the dramatic state failure in Iraq and Afghanistan resulting from U.S. invasions and occupations. It requires that the United States find constructive ways to address escalating tensions between an increasingly authoritarian Turkish government and its terrorized citizenry. It requires listening to political dissidents from all of these places.