International relations are so fucked up these days because of the Iraq war of 2003. The war was
either completely pointless or was allowed to be framed as completely pointless to the general public. And now, everybody is so freaked out about the possibility of getting into another pointless (or seemingly pointless, which is the same thing) war that nobody is willing to do anything about anything.
The ISIS bandits have destroyed the treasures of Nimrud. Their Russian colleagues have razed Debaltseve. All that is left for the two is to organize supply lines for nuclear weapons, and then they will be able to proceed to destroy the world that angers them so much.
In the meanwhile, US and UK, the only countries that ever had a consistent foreign policy different from this rage at modernity we see in ISIS and Russia, are reacting to the mess of the Iraqi war by retreating into a weak and reactive position in international relations. This will obviously not change whatever happened in Iraq back in 2003 but will mess up the present and the future for a long time to come because “let’s close our eyes and pretend nothing is happening” is not an effective foreign policy approach.
Further reading: Great Britain is disappearing from the world stage.
Clarissa's Blog 
Part of what makes things so crazy is that we have extremists in almost every major belief system (including anarchists among atheists) who believe that the world needs to be destroyed in order for a savior to (re)appear or to allow life(?) to move to a higher plain of existence. That brings to mind one of Lincoln’s famed remarks: “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”
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