This piece makes some very good points, but ultimately also falls into the very trap it is discussing. The situation in Ukraine is far more complicated than laid out here, and there are certain conditions that must be accounted for in any reasonable analysis. To wit: -- The root problem here was the NATO commitment not to expand during Glasnost, which they never held to. -- The situation in Ukraine is a mess, with no faith in the previous or current government, and not a ton of hope about what is coming now. Sure, the fascist/anti-Semitism thing is a red herring. at least for now. But the weakness of the Ukraine government is real, and it is a real concern for working Ukrainians. -- The situation also varies. In Crimea, unofficial polls showed a substantial majority that wanted to be part of Russia. Meanwhile, Putin and Russia showed just how clumsy they can be with their heavy-handed interference in a poll that almost certainly would have clearly gone their way in any case. Not with 97% of the vote, maybe with 70-75%. Similar polls conducted in other East Ukraine provinces, as well as anecdotal reports, do not show anything approaching a similar result, which is likely one reason even Putin wouldn't really back the recent Donetsk referendum. -- The US and EU worked in many ways hand in glove with Putin, albeit unintentionally, by pressing and tempting the former government with EU ties, when they knew this was a divisive issue and would correctly be perceived as a direct threat to Russia.

The point is, the knee-jerk reaction you speak of here is visible everywhere. There are no good guys anywhere in this drama except, as always, the ordinary working people of Ukraine. And while it's all well and good to "stand with them" against pro-Russia militias bent on imposing their will on the people, it's also good to recognize that the policies of the US and EU have contributed to this crisis at least as much as Putin's. And it's even more important to recognize that Ukraine is a poor, badly-run country all by itself, with serious ethnic and nationalistic tensions that could well boil over even without US/EU/Russian interference stirring the pot. And the result might be very ugly for all concerned.