Spending our days on the interwebs has its advantages, one being that we come across lots of excellent pieces of journalism. This week, we bring you the best online articles on a possible military intervention in Syria. Disagree with the selection? Leave your suggestions in the comments or tweet #bestreads at @HuffPostWorld.
Blasts In The Night, A Smell, And A Flood Of Syrian VictimsNew York Times -- Ben Hubbard, Mark Mazzetti, Mark LandlerNew York Times reporters reconstruct the early morning of Aug. 21, when hundreds of people were killed in a chemical attack in the suburbs of Damascus. "New patients kept coming," they write. "One doctor from the town of Kafr Batna likened the scene to a horror movie, with cars bringing in entire families — fathers, mothers and children — all of them dead. ... The doctors soon faced a new problem: where to put the dead. Some were covered with blocks of ice to fend off the summer heat, others were wrapped in white sheets and lined up in rows so family members could identify the victims."
Military Strikes Are An Extremely Expensive Way To Help ForeignersSlate -- Matthew YglesiasIs firing cruise missiles at symbolic military targets really the best way to aid the Syrian people? Matthew Yglesias writes: "The explosives-heavy approach to humanitarianism has a lot of unpredictable side effects, sometimes backfires massively, and offers an extremely poor value proposition. So whatever you think about killing some Syrians this summer, please consider throwing a few dollars in the direction of a cost-effective charity of some kind."
How An Insular Beltway Elite Makes Wars Of Choice More LikelyThe Atlantic -- Conor FriedersdorfAccording to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, just 18 percent of the Americans polled support a military strike in Syria. Pundits and experts, however, frequently point to the massive pressure on U.S. President Barack Obama to act. So who is pushing Obama into action? Conor Friedersdorf investigates.
On Syria's Front Lines: A Night In The Field ClinicAl Jazeera America -- Rania AbouzeidRania Abouzeid brings a heartbreaking account from inside a Syrian rebel clinic in the northern town of Salma, where Dr. Rami Habib tends to fighters, prisoners, and residents. Habib was training in the UK when the conflict broke out. He left his wife in Turkey and traveled to Syria. "I told her I have to do this, and she accepted it," he said.