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This week, Briahna spoke to Bernie Sanders' foreign policy advisor Matt Duss about the escalating conflict in Ukraine. The left has split in its approach to this issue, with difference sides accusing one another of imperialism or being Putin-puppets respectively. Briahna attempts to get to the root of the split, and asks Duss what, if any, ethical rationale exists to justify US intervention --regardless of how one judges Russia's behavior. Is it possible to come up with a subjective metric that doesn't just become exploited by imperalists? If Russia mounts a full military attack (which is being announced as I type this), then Biden's choice to send "non lethal aid," sanction oligarchs, and cut off access to lucrative oil pipelines simply isn't enough to do much of anything. So are some leftists wrong to be suspicious that these actions are just the beginning of full on military intervention? Given how many border disputes and genocides America has sat out, what, if any, is the principled argument for intervening this time -- especially when the consequence could be a confrontation between two nuclear powers? What is the end game here? If NATO, a soviet defense pact is such a provocation, should we have been talking about dismantling it long before this moment? Especially since the Soviet Union is long gone? How likely is it that targeted sanctions can really remain targeted? Briahna asks these questions and more.

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Produced by Ben Dalton (@wbend).

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).