Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- September 24, 2014

'We're Not Sure Their Capabilities Match Their Desire' -- Shane Harris/John Hudson/Justine Drennan, Toronto Star And Foreign Policy

Is the Khorasan Group as dangerous as the White House is making it out to be?

Before the first U.S. military aircraft attacked the headquarters of the Islamic State in Raqqa, Syria, early Tuesday morning, waves of American Tomahawk cruise missiles began pounding targets 130 miles west, near the battleground city of Aleppo. They weren't targeting the Islamic State, though. They were battering the training camps and explosives-making facilities of a little-known al Qaeda offshoot called the Khorasan Group that officials say was in the final stages of planning an attack on the United States or European countries.

The U.S.-led airstrikes against the Islamic State gave President Barack Obama a moment of opportunity to launch a one-two punch, hitting both the high-profile militant group that has overtaken vast swaths of Iraq and Syria and the shadowy Khorasan Group. But absent the strikes on the Islamic State, which have been telegraphed for weeks, it's difficult to know if, or when, Obama would have ordered an attack on Khorasan. U.S. intelligence agencies have been tracking the group's evolution for years, but until now, the White House avoided taking military action. As it happened, though, the attacks on the Islamic State have finally given the administration a pretext for hitting Khorasan, which U.S. intelligence officials say is trying to learn how to build bombs that can be sneaked onto commercial airliners.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- September 24, 2014

Khorasan: 8 Things You Never Knew About the Terror Group -- Maureen Mackey, The Fiscal Times

The US is bombing Syria: What we know and don't know -- Max Fisher, Zack Beauchamp, and Amanda Taub, VOX

Arab Allies May Mark a Turning Point -- Mary Silver, Epoch Times

The Anti-ISIS Campaign: Beware the Seeds of Escalation -- Paul R. Pillar, National Interest

Obama re-fights Bush's war, but authorization debate in Congress now a certainty -- Byron York, Washington Examiner

In Syria, Obama stretches legal and policy constraints he created for counterterrorism -- Greg Miller and Karen DeYoung, Washington Post

Obama’s Iraq Is Not Bush’s Iraq -- Michael Tomasky, Daily Beast

The Meaning of the New ISIS Videos -- Alex Altman, Time

The Syrian Front: Waiting to Die in Aleppo -- Christoph Reuter, Spiegel Online

Islamic State: How France lost track of its repatriated jihadists -- Sara Miller Llana, CSM

Scotland and the Spread of Europe's Ills -- Joel Weickgenant, Real Clear World

10 Priorities for Afghanistan’s New President -- Tamim Asey, The Diplomat

Why ISIS Hasn’t Scared the Stock Market -- Yuval Rosenberg, The Fiscal Times

The Most Dangerous World Ever? -- Christopher A. Preble, CATO Institute