No competition
Calm down, ISIS is not winning, writes Iraq analyst Ahmed Ali in a New York Times op-ed. In fact, he says, the fall of Ramadi may be just the thing to wake up Baghdad and remind the Iraqi government that ISIS is still around. It is up to Iraqi ground troops — not American troops — to win the war against ISIS.
Why fight?
Eugene Robinson has a slightly different take in The Washington Post: If the Iraqis aren’t willing to fight ISIS, why should we do the fighting for them?
Taking the blame
But The Daily Beast reports that some Iraqis are charging that it was the Americans that held them back.
Watch out
The fall of Palmyra in Syria is quite another thing, though. ISIS revels in either destroying archaeological wonders or in selling them off. And Palmyra, writes Dexter Filkins in The New Yorker, is a wonder of Greco-Roman architecture. It has survived for more than two millennia. Will it survive ISIS?
Patriot ax
The Patriot Act is hung up in the Senate, where they may actually work a holiday weekend. The House has passed a bill — which the Obama administration actually backs — and is threatening to go home. If there’s no bill, the Patriot Act expires, which may or may not be a calamity. Via The National Journal.
Merit badge
Bob Gates, now head of the Boy Scouts, has called for an end to the ban on gay Scout leaders. The ban, Gates said, cannot be sustained. Being morally straight these days means an entirely different thing. Via The Atlantic.
Cross yourself
The world is changing. Ireland, one of the most Catholic countries in the world, may be about to vote to legalize same-sex marriage. How did this come to be? The country, writes Mo Moultonin in The Atlantic, has rejected the church’s authority but embraced its teachings.
Sense vs. nonsense
Politico suggests that Elizabeth Warren is a hypocrite for opposing the parts of the trade deal in which she participated as a paid witness 15 years ago. And Vox calls Politico “nonsensical” for calling Warren a hypocrite.
Waning power
Karl Rove’s Crossroads Super Pac is, in fact, at a crossroads. It’s no longer the Big Dog in the GOP Super Pac world. The Koch Brothers hold the real influence, and other competitors are coming along. Crossroads may have to settle for spending a mere $300 million in the 2016 cycle. Via The New York Times.
Photo credit: DVIDSHUB, Creative Commons, Flickr.
