Marshall here. Welcome back to the realignment. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the show. Hope you had a

great Thanksgiving break. For today's episode, I'm speaking with return guest, Shadi Hamid,

who is a columnist at the Washington Post, and has a new bookout, the case for American power.

I recorded this before Thanksgiving, so as there was talk, going into the weekend of a

military conflict with Venezuela, I was really concerned that my Tuesday episode would

make the case for American power at a time when it was very clearly being misused.

So that hasn't happened, obviously, but I think everyone should be paying a lot of attention

to what's happening in South America and the broader debates about the Secretary of War

and how the Pentagon and military have approached the drug cartel accusations.

But that said, I think this episode only becomes more relevant in the light of all of this.

The central thing I wanted to talk with Shadi about was this idea that, especially if you're

young, there are all these things that America has done, is doing, and maybe we'll do, they'll make you skeptical of the country,

of the country's power, of whether or not the United States should be engaged in the world.

And I think it's really interesting that Shadi speaking is a critic of many decisions and policies

U.S. supports.

He was very much opposed to the U.S US policy in Gaza. He comes from the left

and really roots himself in the critique of the Iraq war and the protested opposition to it.

For a person like that to write a book still making the case for American power, and as you will

see in this conversation, the broader case for America as a whole, especially in face of all of this skepticism.

So I hope you all enjoy this conversation and use this a chance to think about what we're actually trying to do here and how we actually feel about our country in the midst of all of this.

Chadi Hamid, welcome to The Realignment.

Hi, Marshall. Thanks for having me.

...