Mitchell Linsley

America’s support for Ukraine, the European Union, and NATO isn’t charity, it’s a geopolitical investment. One with blood in the soil and decades of diplomacy in its roots. If we pull back now, choosing short-term politics over long-term global stability, the repercussions won’t just be felt in Kyiv or Brussels, they’ll ripple into every corner of the world. Since the Yalta Conference the United States has been the apex superpower and doesn’t cant simply opt out of its role as a superpower without creating a massive vacuum. In creating this vacuum there will be powers yearning to fill this massive void created by the US.

The countries eager to fill it; Russia, China, Iran don’t believe in freedom, democracy, or peace. Their leaders believe in power, subservience and control. If these nations, primarily China and Russia are allowed to expand uncontested, unchecked, and unchallenged, we could very well witness the early unraveling of the post-World War II order created at Yalta 80 years ago.

Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine isn’t just about territory and never was. It’s about rewriting the rules and proving that a nuclear-armed dictator can redraw borders, erase history, and crush resistance through brute force. If America signals it no longer cares, others will pay attention. Backing out of this conflict will not only send a message to our adversaries but to our greatest allies. The UK, France and Germany could see political reform and follow the path America has seemingly chosen, leaving first Europe then the rest of the world vulnerable to a land grab on a scale not seen since the colonial era. 

The Baltic states, Poland, and other eastern European nations (all NATO members) will be the next dominoes Putin attempts to topple. If he’s emboldened, Article 5 of NATO, the mutual defense clause becomes more than a paper agreement. It becomes a question: Will the United States actually show up and defend the rest of the free world?

Failing to support Ukraine sends a signal far beyond Europe. It tells China that the U.S. won’t defend Taiwan, it tells Iran that influence in the Middle East is up for grabs and it sends a message to authoritarian regimes everywhere that democracy is a failing experiment. The world watches how we treat our allies. They notice when we hedge, when we back down, when we politicize freedom. America isn’t just at risk of losing a war it risks losing much of its credibility.

There also exists a scenario, however unlikely it may seem on its face, where the United States doesn’t just tolerate a new world order, but actively helps script it. In this version of events, Washington doesn’t stand defiant against Moscow and Beijing, but sits down at the table with them, pen in hand, ready to redraw the global map. It’s a quiet, backroom bargain cloaked in the language of pragmatism and realpolitik: I’ll take Greenland, you take Ukraine, he takes Taiwan. In return, we all keep our grip on the oil valves of the Middle East, nodding in agreement as pipelines continue to flow through puppet regimes and manufactured stability.

It’s an audacious move, one that offers the United States the rare chance to consolidate strategic holdings while avoiding direct conflict; on paper, a win. But the ink on that deal would come with the blood of alliances sacrificed. Western Europe, long the bedrock of postwar American foreign policy, would be left blindsided, betrayed, watching the dominoes fall from a deal struck behind their backs. In seizing opportunity, the U.S. would be choosing short-term gain over the moral architecture it spent a century building; abandoning not only its allies but the very idea of a rules-based order.

Despite the scenarios I’ve laid out, the scariest part of America’s potential retreat isn’t what happens abroad but what happens at home. A world where autocracies rise is a world where disinformation thrives, where cyberattacks go unanswered and economies fracture along ideological lines. America would help to create a world where authoritarianism doesn’t just knock at the door, it kicks it in. If the United States backs down now, it will surely pay later. Undoubtedly in dollars, but potentially in lives as well.

America doesn’t need to police the world but it does need to set an example, especially when the stakes are this high. The cost of indifference is likely having another generation growing up under the threat of global war. We’ve seen this play before; in 1938, in 1941 and in 2001. Every time we ignore the warning signs, we’re pulled back in, only with higher stakes and worse odds.

Backing Ukraine, the EU, and NATO isn’t about being the world’s hero. It’s about preserving the world we helped build – one that values sovereignty, liberty, and peace. If America abandons that now, it may never get it back.