‘Left, Right & Center’: Scotland, IS, Alibaba, Midterms

Scotland votes against independence from Britain, but the panel agrees it’s a victory for democracy. Congress votes to support the president’s plan and to arm Syrian rebels. Does Barack Obama need also need congressional authorization to go to war? Panelist Robert Scheer, Truthdig’s editor-in-chief, questions how only 3,000 members of Islamic State seized Iraq’s second-largest city after the U.S. trained 400,000 Iraqi police for a decade. Where did all that money and training go? The lesson is what a dreadful mistake the war in Iraq was, says panelist Chrystia Freeland, a member of Canada’s parliament. Fresh back from the Ukraine, she says people are so engaged there that every young person has his or her own NGO. Alibaba’s IPO soars and represents a sea change for the wired world.

Scheer and Freeland are joined by Matt Miller moderating from the center and John McCormack of The Weekly Standard on the right.

Listen here.

— Adapted from KCRW by Alexander Reed Kelly