Taking the Measure of Ukraine
Former senior CIA ops official Glenn Corn talks about his recent visit to the front lines
For those of us who grew up during the Cold War, the world seems to have turned upside down in recent days. It hardly needs enumerating, but let’s just say that hearing a president of the United States taking Vladimir Putin’s side on much of anything, but particularly his brutal invasion of Ukraine, has been jarring, even otherworldly, to many of us.
But I wanted to hear more of what the Ukrainians are thinking. And to that end my guest on this week’s podcast is Glenn Corn, a senior former CIA operations officer, with wide experience in war zones, who recently travelled to Ukraine on a kind of inspection trip, traveling around the country and taking the temperature of a wide variety of Ukrainians, from military and civilian officials to ordinary citizens. I hope you’ll find our conversation as interesting as I did.
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I'm a former CIA Ops officer and retired military officer who has spent 7 months in Ukraine on 5 different trips since 2022. I admit I haven't talked to a lot of senior officials...just not my gig. But in training courses and presentations and just eating shashlik with lots of people...I have yet to meet a single person who doesn't WANT parts of Ukraine back. Also, the ambush in the Oval Office was painful to watch. Trump is no negotiator, in spite of his ghostwritten book about deals. He's a bully. Most of Europe has figured this out, unfortunately a significant number of Americans haven't. The only good thing about Trump's rejection of NATO and embrace of Putin is that maybe Europe is finally waking up to their own defense needs. I just wish it had not been necessary to trash America's reputation and position as the leader of the free world to do that.
Fascinating. And proving once again that gentle questioning is often far more revealing of an interview subject than a tougher approach.
Nice work, Jeff.