This is too deep...and too complete...to abstract. And in the MoJo blog they cover Beyond Beats and Rhymes, which was going to skip and am glad I didn't.

The Iraq Effect

Exclusive: The war has inspired a wave of terrorism around the world. Excluding Iraq and Afghanistan, the number of jihadist attacks has jumped 35 percent in the past four years. A Mother Jones exclusive study. Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, Mother Jones

PLUS: Iraq 101
Everything you wanted to know about Iraq but were afraid to ask.
Dave Gilson and Robert Dreyfuss
Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds: A Primer • Players, Haters: Iraqi Politics at a Glance
Civil War: Measuring the Violence • Things Fall Apart: The Iraq Civil War FAQ
The Cost: Paying the Price • Down the Drain: Where Reconstruction Money Goes
Aftermath: Long-Term Thinking • What It Costs to Put a GI Back Together Again