What's Going On?

I wish I could understand what's going on here. For the past couple of weeks I've tried watching the news looking for some concrete sign that things can turn around. I'll keep saying that I'm not good at understanding politics. But I think I can try to see the picture from more than one point of view and I hate conspiracy theories. But I have to admit that conspiracy theories are very seductive. In regards to conspiracy theories, what I try to do is just accommodate them into the big picture so that they can easily be slotted in and out without breaking the cohesion of all the other more upfront factual elements. It makes it harder but most people here are convinced that the Americans are they themselves directly responsible for many terrorist attacks for example that it's impossible to speak to them without being able to concede the possibility. So I'm slowly building up a picture. But I'm getting stuck when it comes to America's stance to the Shiite militias especially the ones that have a strong Iranian influence.