Ukraine Conflict - Revolution & Russian Incursion

While much has been made of the recent tensions in Ukraine, not much time has been spent parsing through how Ukraine, Russia, and The West got to this point. Ukraine has found itself in the most recent tug of war between the East and West and the end game is currently anyone's guess.Ukraine's economy has been struggling and on the verge of collapse for the past decade, if not longer.

We go to war because it’s so easy. It’s as simple as that.

"The first time you shoot someone, you get a little nervous. You think, can I really shoot this guy? Is it really okay? But after you kill your enemy, you see it’s okay. You say, Great. You do it again. And again. You do it so the enemy won’t kill you or your countrymen. You do it until there’s no one left for you to kill. That’s what war is.

We have seen this story play out in countless midterm elections before. Members of the party the President belongs to run as far away from him as possible and members of the opposition try to tie members of the President's party to him at every turn.

At what point do you label a military operation a war? Without getting into the pros and cons, the rights and wrongs of bombing Syria, I still wonder at what point the American people, Congress and President Obama are willing to say 'Yes, we are at war with the Islamic State'. Let's try and break this down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Saigon#mediaviewer/File:Saigon-hubert-van-... Senators John McCain and Lyndsay Graham's New York Times Op Ed of the 29th of August "Stop Dithering and Confront ISIS" has a rather pointless "just do something" sense to it that belies the fact that McCain was a prisoner of war in a conflict based on the same sentiment.