This [1] summarizes it well: > Yet despite these humbling failures, the present crisis reveals there is still a reflexive tendency to assume the United States

This [1] summarizes it well: > Yet despite these humbling failures, the present crisis reveals there is still a reflexive tendency to assume the United States has the right, responsibility, and (most important of all) capacity to dictate political arrangements all over the world, even in regions that are more important to others than they are to the West. The United States didn’t have that capacity at the height of the unipolar era, and it certainly doesn’t have that capacity today. Here is the key point: > When your opponent has local military superiority and cares more about the outcome than you do, resolving a dispute typically requires some adjustments on your part. This isn’t a question of right or wrong; it’s a question of leverage. That aside, Biden and the Democratic Party just don't have the appetite for protracted conventional war with a nuclear superpower as evidenced by the lack of such appetite in Iraq or Afghanistan. [1]: https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/02/23/united-states-europe-war-russia-ukraine-sleepwalking/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/02/23/united-states-europe-wa...