quote:
The world watches us, both allies and enemies.

China capitalizes on America’s failure to support Ukraine. They fill Taiwan and Philippine radio airwaves with propaganda, telling those citizens “Look at how America turned their back on their ally, Ukraine; they will do the same to you.”

Allies in the South China Sea are watching us. NATO is watching us. Australia is watching us. And they take to heart how we treat our allies in their time of gravest need. The less they feel they can rely on America, the more they will turn away from us and towards China.

China’s aggression won’t stop with Taiwan. If they exercise full control of the South China Sea, that will completely cutoff Japan.

That will affect world trade and our way of life beyond a point most Americans realize.

It is also destroying confidence in the American Nuclear Umbrella for our allies... so Japan and Poland and others are now signaling that they wish to have their own nukes.

This is bad... the more nukes in existence, the higher the chances that they get used... especially in some countries that tend to suffer wide swings in political ideology and stability. If you don't worry about Pakistan, for instance, having nukes, you really should (the calculation back in the early 80s was that it drew a line with the Soviet Union being just next door in Afghanistan, but now...).

Destroying the world once over is enough, we don't need the ability to destroy it 100 times over.

When the US reluctantly took its place at the top of International Affairs at the end of WWII (after not doing so at the end of WWI, which is kind of what allowed WWII to happen) the result was "The Long Peace" and no large-scale "hot" wars between major nations.

If we abandon that position... all hell will break lose, again.