In the tank

An interesting memo written by the impressive Samantha Power for the Barack Obama campaign (which she advises), on the subject of foreign policy and conventional wisdom. The memo defends Obama's much-criticized remark that he would not use nukes to take out Osama bin Laden, but then goes on to make a much broader point about the type of thinking that has dominated American foreign policy circles for many years (on the left and the right) and which has got the country into an awful lot of trouble since 9/11. Matthew Iglesias points out the careerist dimension to the caution exhibited by foreign policy Serious People here. Glenn Greenwald lays into their shallow, narrow ways of thinking here. Last week, Steve Clemons summed up the mindset among those members of the foreign policy community who opposed the Iraq War, but didn't say anything about it.