The US doesn’t get to sit out much. If you ask the Ukrainians defending their homeland the war is most definitely NOT about the United States. They’re absolutely right, except for the part where it kinda is.

Not because we’re sending them support – who isn’t? Not because we are providing intelligence – ours is cooler because satellites but intelligence is a big tent. Not because we’re the US of A and rah, rah, rah – even we have some limits on our oversized egos. No, it’s not because of what we’re doing – it’s because of who the Ukrainians are fighting.

Tell the truth, if you had been beaten to a pulp by your little brother wouldn’t you tell all your friends that it was really the biggest kid in class that broke you in half? Sure you would. No one admits to losing a fight to the little kid, no matter how scrappy he might be.

Russia would rather eat a live catfish than admit Ukraine is kicking their butt. Suddenly Russia is at war with NATO and that can only mean the real war is with NATO’s evil puppet master, America! Yeah, that’s it. We’re fighting those American Nazis who aren’t actually a thing let alone on the battlefield but why let reality get in the way of bandaging a bruised ego?

School kids lying for bragging rights cause all sorts of interpersonal commotion that is about ten times more trouble than it’s worth. You’d think nation-states would have learned from growing up but no, they don’t. Bigger kids, deadlier toys and stupider fights but no annoying teachers and no principal’s office. Dang, who knew there was something school was actually an improvement on?

We’ve tried the ‘ignore it and it will go away’ thing many, many times. It never goes away. Worse, sometimes it comes knocking in some really nasty ways. No matter how much insulation you put in, you can’t shut out the whole neighborhood. Doesn’t work in the suburbs and it really doesn’t work in the jostling of nation-states.

We can put out the ‘do not disturb’ sign but it won’t matter. Some jerk will do something we actually care about. A friend gets the tar beat out of them. A house is burned down. Eventually, even if we ignore that, the rock sails through our window. We’re that guy – the one everyone turns to or is jealous of – and no matter how hard we try, we will get dragged into the neighborhood drama.

The smart move is to pick our battles instead of having them picked for us. Even smarter is to give the brass knuckles to the scrappy kid and let him take the bully down a few pegs instead of doing it ourselves. Being attentive to the neighborhood doesn’t mean we have to do everything.

Here’s the straight scoop: Russia wants to replace the US as the world’s superpower. So does China. Neither is ready for the job nor do they have anything good in mind for all that power but they are vying for it just the same. Any sign of weakness from the US will be taken advantage of – our pullout from Afghanistan was part of what made Russia think we wouldn’t do anything about Ukraine.

We can turn our back on the world – we won’t but we have the capability – as long as we don’t mind the knives being plunged into our back. There was a time in American history when isolationism made sense. But that was nearly a hundred years ago when we were still only a minor power. Superpowers come with super responsibilities – and a very large target painted on us.

Ignoring the crazy neighbors is one thing but we live in a neighborhood where all the crazies are out to get us. Ignoring insanely jealous enemies is another thing.

A thing called stupid.