Why Ukraine Matters Whether Or Not We All Realize It Yet

I hear a lot of talk over the past several days to few weeks about how the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is none of our business here in the U.S. This is not our fight, and though it's sad what is happening to the Ukrainian people, we don't need to be concerned or involve ourselves in this as a primary stakeholder. And that is true if you look at these sorts of things from a very short-sighted perspective.  I mean, it's not like America helped Russia talk Ukraine into giving up it's arsenal of 5,000+ nuclear weapons in exchange for guarantees that neither country would do just the thing Vladimir Putin is currently doing for all the world to see. Oh, wait. Yes. Yes, we did. Actually we did do that. But it's not as though Ukraine has been seeking to join NATO for the past decade-and-a-half to deter the exact actions Putin is taking right now for all the world to see. Furthermore, it's not as though NATO has strung Ukraine along with pats on the heads and assurances that they're well on their way, and we'll get around to adding you guys here soon we promise at our next meeting... Oh, wait. Yes. That one is also true, actually. But at least Ukraine is a backwater of little to no importance strategically. I mean, it's not as though we're talking about a country which is fourth in the world in terms of the value of its natural resources. If Ukraine had a lot of agricultural and mineral value for a potential future expansion of regional and global power projection aspirations, that would be one thing.  Thank goodness we're not dealing in Putin with someone who says that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest tragedy of the 20th century. And we can all be glad the strongman of Mother Russia has not signaled in speeches that actual NATO members are next because they formerly were part of the USSR. And it's not as though China is simultaneously threatening to take over Taiwan when Taiwan is a leading producer and supplier of semiconductors in the world, a very valuable strategic asset both economically and militarily for a nation with global superpower ambitions like Chairman Xi has expressed. Oh, wait... Yes, actually. Those are also the current conditions. So what are we going to do about it? Why, we'll try some tepid sanctions openly admitted to have zero chance of preventing anything, and we'll openly fret about all this distracting from combatting Climate Change and micro-aggressions.  But at least Biden just announced his Supreme Court Justice pick to replace Breyer. And you'll furthermore be glad to know she is fully qualified, being both a female and a person of color. So move along, folks. Nothing to see here. This is fine. This is all totally fine and will definitely not come back to haunt us and our progeny in the coming years and decades, mark my words.