ISIS has changed the world. Someone tell President Obama.

The political class's response to the chaos in Iraq betrays a profound misunderstanding of the new international order

Barack Obama
(Image credit: (Win McNamee/Getty Images))

Is this how World War III begins — not with an assassination or a nation-state invading its neighbors but with an arc of chaos stretching over 3,000 miles from Tripoli to Kabul?

Deep into this summer of global turmoil, with the United States once again seeking to steer the course of events in Iraq with precision-guided missiles, my thoughts have turned to the late historian Tony Judt. In a brief but brilliant essay written for The New Republic hours after the 9/11 attacks (not available online), Judt described gazing out his downtown-facing New York University office window that late summer morning to watch the 21st century begin.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.