Last thing we need is the conflict in ME to escalate to WW3.... but with the amount of natural resources and old grudges within the region alone, things might escalate... the best we can hope is that it will remain a regional Shia/Sunni conflict, but with Turkey being a part of NATO and high probability of it being dragged into a conflict... I mean, there are all the ingridients in that pot for things to blow up... I just hope it won't and that lessons in the WW2 and WW1 societies can hold leaders of main participants of those conflicts away from going full retard.
Oh, just that one of the articles gave the impression that the author thought backing down over any flashpoint is cowardice - that kind of thinking usually comes from hawks who never go to fight, heh.