The video doesn’t end where it starts.  A complicated issue, Islamic extremism.

Haroon Ullah:

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Our men and women in harm’s way deserve as much political honestly as possible at home, and clear objectives when it’s their asses on the line.

If we’re going to fight an amorphous enemy; ideological and pan-Arab, violent and ridiculously morally absolute, it doesn’t hurt to examine our reasons why, as well as why young Muslim men might be hearing the call.

One goal ought to be limiting the reasons for the conflict longer-term, as well as constantly re-assessing coalition strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

When we fight, we should aim to fight to win with as little damage as possible.

Michael Totten post here.

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As previously posted:

What’s life like in a slum in Karachi?  Crime bosses provide basic social services and protection for residents and become populist figures, earning the love and fear of the people.  The bosses then buy off the police.  The corruption is deep,  the makers of the film courageous, and perhaps a little nuts.  The PPP doesn’t necessarily have control. Good film. Perhaps, what the Karachi government is to the Liyari slum, the Federal government is to the FATA region.

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Isn’t basic corruption the rule rather than the exception?

Whatever your politics, I highly recommend Street Fight, by Marshall Curry. It takes a look at Cory Booker’s first 2002 failed mayoral run in Newark.

Daily life is pretty rough, and it highlights the kind of black leadership struggles going on within the Democratic party:

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Another take: Walter Russell Mead discussed his then new book entitled God and Gold:  Britain, America and the Making of the Modern World.

Maybe there are other options besides Fukuyama’s Hegelian end point of history, and Huntington’s Clash Of Civilizations with regard to our current dealings with the Islamic resurgence and its anti-modern, anti-Western, theocratic impulses (liberal internationalism and Obama’s foreign policy have certainly created problems, but there are underlying issues the West will face):

Mead argues that religion, government, free-trade, capitalism, sport, and especially naval power have shaped our two cultures which have thus shaped the world (an [economic] model he suggests originally came from the Dutch).

Likely worth your time.

A tense relationship: Fareed Zakaria At Newsweek: ‘Terrorism’s Supermarket’…Christopher Hitchens At Vanity Fair: ‘From Abbotabad To Worse’…Repost-’Dexter Filkins In The NY Times: The Long Road To Chaos In Pakistan’

From Slate: ‘In Aleppo, Syria, Mohamed Atta Thought He Could Build The Ideal Islamic City’…From The NY Times: Review Of Christopher Caldwell’s Book “Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West”