Nearly everyone seems to agree that the threat of the Islamic State is as real as its brutality. But Brian Fishman writes that if we’re going to take on ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the American people must be told the truth about the costs. Fishman, a fellow at the New America Foundation policy think tank, warns that the costs would be great and that the effort — which he seems to think is necessary — would be long and painful. Via War on the Rocks.
Darren Wilson’s first job: On a dysfunctional Missouri police force that was disbanded by the authorities. Via the Washington Post.
Molly Ball of the Atlantic takes us inside the Democrats’ plan to save Arkansas and, thereby, the Senate. You may recognize it. It’s the updated version of the plan that Michael Bennet used to save his seat in 2010.
The beheading of Jim Foley, apparently by a British jihadist, has led British authorities to appeal to anti-extremist imams to help get at the roots of radicalized British Muslims. Via the New York Times.
If you want insight into inequality in America, all you have to do is take a close look at zip codes and how they Google. On one side there are religion and diets. On the other … cameras and Zoolander? Via the New York Times.
How the feminizing of the ape-man gave us art. Via the New Yorker.
It was 200 years ago that the British set fire to the White House in the war that no one remembers. Strangely, that British fire helped cement Washington’s position as the nation’s capital. Joel Achenbach tells the story in the Washington Post.
[Photo by 401(K)2012 via Flickr/Creative Commons.]
