> The US presiding over a series of failed states throughout the world where they endless hunt for terrorists seems like an insane plan - but a plan which seems to be shaping up as the objective of US policy.
Interesting in context of the original comment: Russia is effectively doing the same in the Caucasus and attempting to do so in Syria and Ukraine, albeit as ineffectively as the US' attempts to do so in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The US has long presided over successful, or at least stable (if not at all laudable) states in the Middle East for some time, but is losing its ability to do so, as those states lose their ability to maintain control over their internal affairs and neighbors. Both actors' failure to establish or support viable states in those regions have led to resentment, instability and radicalization, manifesting in violence aimed at them (international terrorism) and those states they've attempted to create or maintain (domestic terrorism and/or civil warfare).
Neither has had any obviously obtainable military objective for some time--while both are able to win conventional battles easily, winning conventional battles no longer has much useful effect, as they are not fighting or attempting control or defeat states, they are attempting to fight and defeat and/or control populaces/nations, which is impossible unless you wish to enact a genocide. Any goals of engendering stable, successful, independent nation-states cannot be accomplished by military means, nor can Russia or the US accomplish anything by waging a conventional war against states of equal power.