[opportune]

As an American I am in favor of us helping Ukraine and Taiwan over something like Iraq/Afghanistan/something-like-Vietnam because it is just as much about preserving self-determination and liberty as it is realpolitik.

Iraq is not really comparable because you can’t separate support for the war there in its early days from 9/11 and the desire to “do something.”

But this is also not a Vietnam situation in which the US is propping up a relatively unpopular government and fighting personally in the conflict at great cost of American lives (maybe Taiwan could go down like that, but I think that makes the prospect of actual conflict unlikely, because neither the US nor China wants to nuke the other).

Ukraine was a bit different because they were not as US-aligned before the conflict. But especially with regards to Taiwan, I’d consider an attack against them the same as an attack against any European or ANZAC ally.