If there is outrage coming from any countries in the region, it is not being reported with the same intensity. Is there any fury being expressed by Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates?

Once again, it appears to me that we are taking sides in a civil war.

The more we bomb, with the inevitable result of massive civilian casualties, and increasing presence of foreign troops on their soil, the more we are sinking into a conflict which I fear will cause us much grief.

At this point, without someone in the region who champions the same cause as we with the same intensity, we just appear as the invaders and the conquerors.

Obama even trumpets that, "as Americans, we welcome the opportunity to lead". For whom does he speak? Which Americans? All Americans? Did we have some kind of referendum that I missed? Was there an intense debate in Congress on the wisdom or necessity of our involvement?

The discussion about Michelle Obama's lack of headscarf during the recent homage to the new Saudi King Salman generated more debate in the media than the war on ISIS.

This, as they consider their ongoing public flogging of a blogger for the alleged  crime of "insulting Islam". He has already received 50 lashes that have left him so weak that these allies of ours have generously agreed to postpose the second set of lashes until his wounds heal. Once they heal, the faces 50 lashings every Friday for the next 18 weeks.

These are our buddies, the Saudis.
As opposed to those vicious bast@rds in Isis.

Some are opining that Jordan will trade their Jihad Jane for the pilot but does ISIS need her?  Not that way.  She'll be just another martyr for their cause.  Another reason to be angry at a western aligned Jordan.  Enemies are what ISIS wants, what ISIS needs, and what their every action breeds.

What a world.

Re Michelle's hair day, that was too much ado about business as usual.

Much more than the fate of Mr Goto hangs in the balance. Japan's foreign policy, rooted in its pacifist constitution, stands at a tipping point. How the public reacts to the fate of Mr Goto could have a big influence on where things go from here.
...
Yukio Okamoto, a defence expert and supporter of Mr Abe's diplomatic agenda, says the kidnapping has exposed the Japanese public to the world's uncomfortable realities. "We can no longer hide behind camouflaged neutrality," he says.
...
The outcome of the debate may well hinge on the fate of Mr Goto. Unlike the executed Yukawa, a fantasist who stumbled into the Middle East after claiming to be the reincarnation of a Manchu princess, Mr Goto elicits plenty of public sympathy. A humanitarian who has devoted much of his journalistic career to exposing the hardships of children in war zones, he went to Syria in a desperate attempt to rescue the hapless Yukawa.