Confronting the Islamic State

Guests: Matt Van Dyke, Bobby Ghosh, Phillip Smyth

The U.S. continued airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq, following the group’s beheading of American journalist James Foley on Tuesday.  The Islamic State has threatened to execute journalist Steven Sotloff if the U.S. continues its air war.  With the help of the strikes, the Iraqi forces have taken back the Mosul Dam from the jihadists.  This hour, we remember James Foley, discuss the brutal tactics of the Islamic State, and look at the United States options for combating the militant extremist group in Iraq and Syria.  Marty starts off talking with filmmaker MATTHEW VANDYKE, who was a friend of James Foley’s.  Then she talks to PHILLIP SMYTH, researcher who studies jihadist groups at University of Maryland’s Laboratory of Computational Cultural Dynamics and BOBBY GHOSH, managing editor of Quartz and a former Bagdad bureau chief for Time Magazine, about combating IS.