in motion long before we left Afghanistan. I just don't buy your argument. You can say that some of these countries are trying to take advantage of political chaos or betting that the American appetite for war at a low. But if you're trying to make the argument that we should have continued a costly 20-year waste of time in Afghanistan because of how it might influence China (who has been in expansion mode for a couple of decades), Russia (which has always had a hard on for the ethnic Russians in the Ukraine), NK (which stopped missile testing when their test facility collapsed), or Iran (thank you Trump for gutting the nuke deal), then I just think that's simplistic. There are multitudes of other factors.

It remains to be seen if Ukraine will be invaded. And of course we will follow up with sanctions if it happens. What else would you expect the US to do? But the US isn't the only player there. The EU will have something to say, too. It affects them a hell of a lot more than it does us, after all.