On Thursday night, President Biden said that we as a nation are at an inflection point. He invoked a famous phrase from the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he said the United States must be “the arsenal of democracy.”

It’s worth breaking this rhetoric down for its historical significance and current implications. In President Biden’s view, the world is faced with the prospects of liberal democracies against a rising tide of authoritarian dictatorships. In his speech from the oval office he warned that if the United States does not stand firm against tyrants and terrorists, it will become increasingly emboldened to do more by way of aggression against democratic countries, their ideals and their institutions.

Vladimir Putin and his former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev have both said publicly that the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are Russian provinces. Russia views Poland territorially and historically as being part of Russia and as a threat because of its NATO status and its strategic and geographic proximity to Ukraine.

I’ve been to the Baltic nations and spoken with many of its citizens. In no uncertain terms do they reject these eager Russian territorial claims. They celebrate their independence from its toxic authoritarian rule, and they celebrate their protective NATO shield.

If Russia were to succeed in its quest to overrun Ukraine, few doubt that Mr. Putin would not hesitate to move on the Baltic states and possibly even Poland. It’s why President Biden insists that Ukraine, like the Maginot Line against Nazi Germany in Europe, must be the boundary at which, “Thou Shall Not Pass.” Ditto against Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and ISIS in the Middle East by way of Gaza.

President Roosevelt understood the prevailing isolationist sentiment in the United States. Mistakenly, many felt that it was not in America’s best interest to get involved in a global war, but FDR also understood the potential domino effect of Hitler’s rampage through Europe, the need to stand resolute against this threatening totalitarian surge, and the potential threat to the democracies of Europe and the United States.

If the United States fails to be “all in” in its stand with respect to Ukraine and the Middle East, our adversaries will sense weakness. We can then expect larger scale terrorist and totalitarian encroachments, forcing the need for us to put U.S. troops at war on the ground and at sea globally against multiple adversaries. Make no mistake, this is a strategic inflection point, and our national security is at stake.

Ironically, at the time, Franklin Roosevelt was an older man with very serious health problems. In today’s world, with his blood pressure readings, he would have been a full-time resident in the nearest hospital emergency room. He was not motivated for a fourth term in the White House, but he sensed, as did much of American leadership, that we needed an experienced statesman to handle the existential threat that Hitler and Emperor Hirohito represented to America and the world.

The Wall Street Journal editorial page, which is a frequent critic of President Biden, wrote this week that, “President Biden on Thursday finally told the American people the truth about a new world of threats… Mr. Biden was straight forward that prevailing in both Israel and Ukraine is ‘vital for America’s national security’… Americans are receiving an education in what the world looks like when U.S. deterrence erodes, and rebuilding that power should be the top bipartisan priority in Washington, D.C. …Mr. Biden’s more than $100 billion funding request is a start.”

I’ve come to the troubled conclusion that we are indeed at an existential inflection point. In this multipolar world, our enemies are sensing weakness, and opportunities to make trouble, not just in northern Europe but in the Middle East, in Africa, and in the Indo Pacific. This is no time to be incremental. It’s time to be “all in,” as the arsenal of democracy.

President Biden chose to quote FDR purposefully. When Roosevelt invoked this memorable phrase there was a sentence that followed, which is as applicable today as it was back then. “We must be the great arsenal of democracy,” he said because… “For us this is an emergency as serious as war itself.”

Bill Sims is a Hillsboro resident, retired president of the Denver Council on Foreign Relations, an author and runs a small farm in Berrysville with his wife. He is a former educator, executive and foundation president.