i'm bob abernathy. it's good to have you with us for our annual look ahead at what the top religion and ethics stories of the new year may be. e.j. dionne is here. he's a senior fellow with the brookings institution in california, a columnist for "the washington post," and professor at georgetown university. kevin eckstrom is the religion news service, and kim lawton is the managing editor of this program. welcome to you all. let's begin with that terrible terrible situation in the middle east with isis and whether it can be brought under control or defeated. who wants to predict anything there? >> it's one of the big questions the international community is going to have to continue struggling with in this year is how to stop isis. and for the u.s., unfortunately, that means i think some very difficult political debates about increasing the military operations there. and it's interesting that in the past we've had some more debates about moral implications of u.s. actions and i don't think we have as m