Thus The Wall Street Journal today. “Islamic State runs on illicit economy in Syria and Iraq, pirating oil while exacting tributes from locals, making it one of the world’s richest terror groups,” explains the newspaper. Gosh! Illicit economy? But that is horrible! The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria should be running its affairs legally and by contract enforced by law. Shame on caliph Ibrahim! I am only kidding, of course. The tenor of the title and byline is simply ridiculous. How else could the new caliphate work but by illicit economy? But the moralizing tone of the article in question only shows that both Americans and Europeans are completely and totally baffled by ISIS. Indeed, they sound like Romans of old under the onslaught of Attila, among others. “Hey,” you can almost hear them grumbling, “this ain’t legal!” Which only goes to show that one of the reasons why empires fall is that they cannot comprehend the changing world around them.