The wonderful Utopia of liberty, equality and fraternity, called Ukraine, is dragging the world into the largest European war since 1945. There are currently 300 U.S. soldiers in Ukraine training Ukrainians to kill Russians. Could this be the final step that sends us hurtling over the cliff into the eternal darkness?

Arming and training the Ukrainians is a serious move toward war with Russia. If Russia actually invaded Ukraine, our soldiers would inevitably be caught in the crossfire. Are we really willing to undergo a nuclear holocaust, so a blue and yellow flag can fly over the city of Donetsk?

It’s true that in recent months I’ve become something of a fanatic and a bore on Ukraine. Since the school year is coming to an end I think it’s important to focus our attention on what could be the most important event of the decade. It’s also important that a fair account be given rather than just the “Putin is Hitler” narrative.

I am the most right-wing organism living on this campus, yet I’m the only person running around screaming, “Stop this! This is insane!” It seems like everyone has turned into the foolish youth in “The Red Badge of Courage,” who thinks, “Greek like struggles would be no more. Men were better, or more timid. Secular and religious education had effaced the throat-grappling instinct, or else firm finance held in check the passions.”

This crisis is incredibly stupid and could have been avoided. Anyone who actually cares about what happens to the people of Ukraine should stop looking for a perfect solution. The grim reality is that Russia exists and  because of proximity, language, culture and ethnicity, Ukraine will inevitably drift toward Moscow’s sphere of influence. Tearing Ukraine from Russia is like trying to pull an iceberg with a rowboat.

There’s no explanation for our behavior toward Russia, unless there’s some explanation beyond the rational. The residual Cold War hatred of Russia fuels much of the fire. People don’t seem able to understand that Christian Russia is not the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was interested in an ideological struggle with the United States over mastery of the globe. Russia is interested in its national security in the midst of a dying population and an economic collapse.

People declare that Putin wants to recreate the Soviet empire. Does anyone stop for a moment and think about what that would actually entail? Russia would have to invade Poland, a nation of 40 million people, as well as Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Germany to the Elbe River, Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Belarus.

Russia is incapable of recreating the territorial gains of 1945. Russia’s population of 143 million is disappearing. By 2050, the population will be about 111 million. Russia is in serious danger of losing its Eastern Siberian regions to China. China is bursting at the seams and has a growing energy need, while the empty vastness of Eastern Russia sits right across the border. How can a nation barely maintaining its current borders build an empire?

One would think after the incredible disaster of Iraq people would be more skeptical of war, but quite the opposite is true. We are now bombing countries left and right and people like John McCain want us to bomb even more.

Since neocon dawn in 2000, foreign policy of the Republican and Democratic parties has been almost identical. Both parties support the endless wars in the Middle East and poking the Russian Bear with a stick. No one, when asked, can explain what exactly America’s interest in Ukraine is.

This isn’t a principled conflict. If we are against what Russia is doing on principle then we are the biggest hypocrites in history. We invaded Iraq because we disliked its government. We bombed Serbia because we disliked its government. We armed allies of ISIS in Syria in order to overthrow the Assad regime. We are giving aid to the Saudis so they can overthrow the Houthi government in Yemen. How can we say we are against Russia in Ukraine on principle?

One last parting shot at all you silly neocons, Ronald Reagan would have stayed the hell out of Ukraine! At least, that’s according to Reagan’s senior advisor Pat Buchanan. So let us remember, Russia is not Mordor, Putin is not Hitler, Ukraine is not paradise and Neville Chamberlain was actually an honorable man so stop using his name as a slur.