As long as the United States (U.S.) decides to involve itself in other global affairs, it will continue to dig itself and its nation into a deeper and deeper hole. Historically, the U.S. government is notorious for having unnecessarily involved itself in external affairs, and ever since the Revolutionary War, our validity and reasoning for involvement in wars has gone from 100 to zero.

American believability of peace has quickly diminished ever since the start of World War II, occurring just 21 years after World War I, or the Great War, which was believed to be the “war to end all wars.” 83 years later, we are still dealing with this same type of conflict, involving severe power-hungry gluttony amongst political leaders all around the world. 

There’s no doubt that America has played one of the biggest roles in its own demolition; it’s not outside forces that damage our nation, but instead the ignorant decisions we allow our “leaders” to make. The government’s role is to protect its people at all costs and to provide a fulfilling and stable place for its residents to thrive. Instead, the U.S. government has been waning more and more towards decisions that don’t value the nation, but instead decisions that favor validity at face value, not long-term.

This is happening right now. We are currently fueling one of the biggest and riskiest conflicts in the world, which is the Russian-Ukraine conflict, by sending $18.2 billion dollars in security assistance since January 2021, and putting ourselves at risk for a nasty return of nuclear weapons from Russia and other tense countries capable of taking out the entire planet with a single button. What we need is reasonable communication intended for problem-solving directed by intelligent people with humanity’s best interest. Through respectability and compromising, by seeing everyone as an equal and a partner, issues we face politically and globally are possible to solve. However, right now, we have a lot of confused people deciding to use their voices and power in the wrong ways.

A little under a month ago, our president stated in an interview that, “The idea that a world leader (…) says that he may use a tactical nuclear weapon (…) It could lead to a horrible outcome.” Biden, Joe. CNN Exclusive. Conducted by Jake Tapper. 11 Oct. 2022. What’s contradictory to this statement is that according to The U.S. Department of State we’ve already sent and promised over 1,400 Stinger anti-aircraft systems; over 8,500 Javelin anti-armor systems; over 38,000 other anti-armor systems; over 700 Switchblade Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems; 142 155mm Howitzers and up to 903,000 155mm artillery rounds to Ukraine, and more (see the full list here) instead of doing everything we can to diffuse this situation with our big boy words and utilizing our resources for the safety of our own citizens.

As of 2020 one in every three adults are having trouble paying basic expenses in the U.S. while the government continues to sit back and neglect its people, simultaneously putting them at risk. The U.S. government and media would rather favor a quick but short-lived and “noble” recognition, backed up with quantity rather than quality. A lot of people think that money, aid and weapons combined equals good for countries in conflict, so whenever they see a donate button, they think that it will solve the problem. But, obviously, it’s most definitely not that cut and dry. By doing this, we are only intimidating the Russian government and putting everyone and ourselves at a greater risk as opposed to simply restraining ourselves from shoveling resources into a war across the globe that only threatens our well-being because of our involvement.

The consequences of the government’s need to feel heroic and take on burdens they can only ignorantly try to solve are already clearly taking place, with Putin’s clear agitation causing him to threaten us along with those originally involved in the conflict. 

“In its aggressive anti-Russian policy, the west has crossed every line. Some irresponsible politicians in the West speak (…) about delivering Ukraine long-range weaponry systems. (…) Our country also has a variety of weapons of destruction, and in some areas even more modern than those in Nato countries. We will without question use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. This is not a bluff,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his national address Sept. 21. Putin proves a point here, that if the U.S. keeps trying to take on things that it can’t handle, that only provokes the risk of our safety. We need to aim our nation into a safer, more intellectual direction.

At this point, the U.S. needs to realize that it only has three options: to either solve the root of the problem, propose a well-thought-out compromise for the subjects of the argument, or simply leave it all alone and let Ukraine and Russia hash it out – as long as we aren’t threatened or harmed in any way, which is very possible. We should not be allowing the safety of citizens in our own country to be at risk from outward forces that don’t involve us in conflict.