>You want to know what happens whenever the US pulls back? Ukraine gets invaded.
America hasn't even pulled back and we still can't stop Ukraine from getting invaded. Besides, preventing Ukraine from getting invaded isn't worth a whole lot of money as an American. We can not and should not try to be the world's police.
That's not what the Budapest Memorandum said, this was the actual promise:
>Seek immediate Security Council action to provide assistance to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine if they "should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used".
Such action was indeed sought at the UNSC on March 15, 2014, in spite of the fact that there was no threat of nuclear aggression. We actually exceeded our obligations under the memorandum.
>Seems a bit shitty to take their nukes
They weren't their nukes, they were Russian nukes, and IIRC Ukraine had no way to actually use them as nukes, even if they wanted to.
We upheld every promise we made to Ukraine. This may not be a polite thing to say, but Ukraine is not valuable enough to risk any sort of war with a country like Russia, nuclear OR conventional.
And there is the crux of it. America used to be the 'white city on the hill' where we stood up for what's right and did what we had to do for our friends.
This Utilitarian cynicism is all too common, and unworthy of a great people. Rule-lawyering our way out of helping others seems petty and mean.
>America used to be the 'white city on the hill' where we stood up for what's right and did what we had to do for our friends.
This has never been true.
>Rule-lawyering our way out of helping others seems petty and mean.
Kinda like how we told Russia we wouldn't be expanding NATO eastward and after did that and pointed it out the response is akin to "neener neener did you get it in writing?"
