Recently, Senator McCain commented during a Sunday talk show that we might be seeing the beginning of a great unraveling of the world order put in place after World War II. But, if anything, it’s probably scaling back to that very world order he mentioned. The one where Russia and the U.S. are in a great game for the world. There again, times could be truly bad, and things could become progressively worse. Time will tell. European security, however, is still as important as ever. Ukraine remains threatened by a civil war as does European security.

Ukraine’s importance is a critical global situation. It is as important, in some ways, as Syria. The U.S. does not have a strong stance or policy towards Syria. The West is not active in Ukraine because it is consumed by Syria and the Middle East. Whether or not the U.S. and the West should intervene is an argument to be bad. But, sadly, an argument that has not been waged to a high degree.

Here’s a list of some of the events that have transpired in Kiev and Ukraine that took the people to a state of civil war.

– Protesters built overnight tents and laid out fuel in a ring to create a real ring of fire to keep security forces out.

– Eventually, security forces broke through protesters in Kiev, igniting the conflict that has metastasized today.

– No one is sure, but Ukrainian policemen might have been burned alive during the riots and protests.

– The government has categorized the protesters as terrorists and launched, counter-terror or anti-terror, operations as a result. This could be especially alarming for Americans as the government used terrorism as a mechanism to move forward with brutality towards its people. At the time the government was run by Yanukovych with Russian support. He is now in exile.

– Russia has rhetorically and politically increased its support for the government leading toward Yanukovych’s exile.

Why does Ukraine matter?

They’re one of the largest standing armies in Europe and the line of defense against the Russian sphere of influence. Ukraine is similar to Iraq before the invasion – the nation that stood between the Middle East and the Persian empire. European security = France, Germany, Poland, and then, Ukraine. It’s an important chain link that’s at risk of being broken. It’s probably unlikely that war and more violence would break out across Europe. But, political turmoil and Russian propaganda and subversion would run rampant. Additionally, if the situation in Ukraine worsens than the other Baltic nations might take matters into their own hands in fear of a Russian invasion. These nations are members of NATO and could ignite a global conflict.

Featured image courtesy of Huffington Post