The US can’t suffer a defeat in Ukraine. If it does, or another country manages to slap the US in the face by bringing this conflict to a closure behind our back, it will be as if a light switch is turned on and the world will finally see the cockroches of the DC swamp and MIC scatter for the vermin they are.
With our withdrawal from afghanistan, leaving behind billions in equipment we look weak. And now Russia is buying that equipment from the Taliban.