We must come to terms with the reality that we live in a multicultural, multinational world. Our assertion of uniqueness has been enormously expensive and counterproductive.
Any effective U.S. foreign policy must not just vilify leaders, whether Saddam Hussein or Putin, but recognize and try to understand why so many foreign citizens think differently than we do.
Russia may still be to some extent a riddle, but the mystery is not so much in what Russian leaders are doing and thinking, but the way they are misinterpreted by some circles in the West.
Far from ending the conflict and creating an inclusive, multi-ethnic state, Shiite prime minister, Nouri al Maliki's anti-Sunni policies directly led to the rise of ISIS. He, along with Paul Bremer, is the man most responsible for creating ISIS.