We Should Aspire to Be Better in You, Crane

The firebrand journalist and author Glenn Greenwald joined us for a broad-ranging discussion on the war in Ukraine and the past few decades of American foreign policy. We tackled the comparisons between Russia's invasion, the Iraq War, and other disastrous American foreign policy failures. Does America's good intent set it apart from countries like Russia, or are we more similar than we care to admit?

In the full subscriber-only conversation, we ask Glenn whether the U.S. should continue arming the Ukrainian resistance, and what an endgame would even look like. Shadi argues that, for all its faults, American hegemony is better than any of the available alternatives while Damir wonders whether "better" is even a relevant category. Perhaps a multipolar world is inevitable. If so, how should we think about such a world and our role in it?

Required Reading

- Glenn's Substack

- "War Propaganda About Ukraine Becoming More Militaristic, Authoritarian, and Reckless" by Glenn Greenwald (Substack)

- "Victoria Nuland: Ukraine Has 'Biological Research Facilities,' Worried Russia May Seize Them" by Glenn Greenwald (Substack)

- "The Ugly Truth About No-Fly Zones" by Damir Marusic (Wisdom of Crowds)

- "There Are Many Things Worse Than American Power" by Shadi Hamid (The Atlantic)

- "141 countries vote to condemn Russia at UN" by Ivana Saric and Zachary Basu (Axios)