How many were with us after 9/11?

It's more about holding Europe together as an entity that doesn't revert to pre-WII wars among neighbors that turns into a shitshow and disrupts everything.

And then nuclear proliferation... some of these countries have parliamentary systems that can swing from one extreme to another... with Neo-Nazis and Neo-Communist parties that have bursts of popularity. Do we want one of those parties to come into power and have control of nukes? Without confidence in the US/NATO providing the nuclear umbrella they're going to want their own, and that's not good.

We didn't really learn our lesson from WWI... but we did from WWII, and we put a system in place that gave us the "Long Peace." I know everybody screams about "Globalism," and it is bad when taken to ridiculous extremes (which we've done a lot)... but the concept was that countries did not need to attack and invade other countries for resources, anymore... they could buy them on the open market.

China... doesn't seem to be concerned with projecting military power beyond reclaiming Taiwan (and that's more of a personal obsession of Xi's at this moment... based in fears of people thinking Taiwan has a legitimate claim to power in China) and seems more set on being a major global economic force as a way to accrue power. Something they seem to be agitated with Putin for screwing with...

Russia... this is where people scratch their heads. In that respect, globalism was enriching Russia (or at least Putin and his Oligarchs) and invading other countries like Ukraine makes no real sense...

But "human beings" can be the most valuable resource, and besides Putin's dreams of reclaiming the Russian/Soviet Empire of old and his paranoia about security and having buffer states under his control, Russia's demographic collapse endangers their existence... and Russia does not value the rural Eastern part of its population at all, so sending those men to their deaths is probably something they see as a win, as far as disposing of people they have no work for and who they fear might turn rebellious when the vodka and krokodil run out... absorbing 20 million "European" "Russians" that are generally more educated (supposedly, the Russian education system kind of collapsed in the early 00s) would give them a boost.

And considering the demographic collapse that is probably going to bring down both Russia and China as it stands now... what will a world without the two of them as a force look like?