The foreign policy community debate has led down some pretty interesting avenues, one of them being an interrogation of the idea that the United States has "vital interests". The short answer is no, and that policy arguments made on the basis of "vital interests" are...
the national interests
I had been planning to write a longer post on Ezra Klein's "anti-values" column from last week, but after reading Hilzoy, I find that I pretty much agree with everything.