"They talk endlessly about the cost of beating Russia. But they never talk about the more frightening and much more expensive alternative. The cost of not."

"Together, they were not simply telling Ukraine that America was overextended, or that the paradigm had shifted. They were broadcasting to the whole world that the United States could not offer so much as moral support to a country invaded by another country—a country run by a despot who wants to reassemble the empire the United States once crushed.
    "This was a betrayal not only of Ukraine, but America. ...
    "What is the point of an America that does not defend, if only from the bully pulpit, the right of ... smaller, weaker countries to defend themselves against their bigger, rapacious neighbours? How have we become so alienated from ourselves that we not only find it difficult to empathise with the Ukrainians but feel compelled to demonise them? We used to celebrate the likes of Zelenskyy, who proudly refused an American offer to airlift him out of his country two days after Russia invaded it. 'The fight is here,' he said. 'I need ammunition, not a ride.'
    "Neither Trump nor his subordinates ever says what will happen after Russia is rewarded for its aggression. They simply say that that is our only option. They don’t imagine or talk about the new world order according to the authoritarians ... Nor do they ever bring up the countless democratic movements that America helped usher into being.
    "They talk endlessly about the cost of beating Russia. But they never talk about the more frightening and much more expensive alternative. The cost of not."

~ Peter Savodnik from his post 'My Ancestors Fled Ukraine. It Was America That Allowed Me to Return.'