A cartoon in The New York Times recently depicted an Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)-affiliated militant holding a flag on which the word "caliphate" is written while making a V sign with his other hand. George W. Bush and Obama stand at a distance. Bush repents that "If only I had not entered Iraq" and Obama says "If only I entered Syria."We are not quite sure whether Churchill's statement of "Americans will always do the right thing, after exhausting all the alternatives" will prove true or not. A splendid movie called "The Grand Budapest Hotel" which was inspired by Stefan Zweig's novels and was shot a few months ago, tells the darkness of the 1930s in an outstanding way. Zweig observes how enthusiastically people welcomed World War I, in contrast to how they were preoccupied with widespread pessimism and anxiety while heading toward World War II. Zweig's observation of World War II reflects his own state of mind as well. He went to Brazil together with his second wife, but he could not stand the craze of the world and killed himself. Many European politicians thought that if Hitler had occupied the territories, which were taken away from Germany with the Versailles Agreement and inflicted heavy damage on the German consciousness, peace would have been reestablished. On the contrary, Churchill put forward that this policy of appeasement was wrong and Hitler should have been immobilized through the war. Churchill was proven right. When he came to power he said, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." He did what he had promised. Fascism was defeated in Europe, even if it still continues in Turkey. When the legitimate Ukrainian government was toppled through street protests under the cloak of "freedom," Russians and pro-Russian minorities that could not digest this situation and started to wage a struggle against incipient competent sections. Crimea was annexed to Russia in a relatively warless and smooth way. Eastern Ukraine is not as lucky as the Western side. It was possible to see the tension between Russia and Ukraine during the European Council meetings. Following the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. entered Afghanistan and soon after Iraq, with the promise of establishing democracy and freedom there. Even more, the U.S. issued constitutions for these countries with contributions from Freedom House. Sudan also had its share of these contributions. Sudan was divided and the situation in Afghanistan and Iraq is blatantly obvious.Following the Arab Spring that swept the Middle East like a wind promising democracy and freedom, Tunisia became the only country that achieved a partial peace and made its own constitution. The military tutelage that was rebuilt in Egypt and Syria is at a low ebb. In other words, it seems that there is no peace anywhere apart from Europe. Was Bush not right a bit when he regretted entering Iraq? Was Obama not right to the same extent while he was saying if only he entered Syria? Even if implicitly, Turkey rejected the occupation of Iraq and supported intervention in Syria. It seems as if Turkey was right. After World War II, a supra-national structure was introduced not to have further wars on the European lands and it resulted in the EU. Apart from that, the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights, which are essentially working to maintain civil rights, were formed. The U.N. came after these two. The last two institutions could not prevent wars and destruction in the rest of the world. But the first one succeeded. The EU was more based on economic and political integration, while the two others centered on civil rights. If Zweig lived today, he would not be that heavy-hearted due to these bodies and the current experiences offer opportunities of recovering from calamities.