What Does Ukraine Mean To Us?

About a week ago, a Republican reader asked me, “What does Ukraine mean to us Americans?” I responded:

At a personal level, it means our connection to the safety of 44 million innocent men, women and children who shouldn’t be getting blown to bits so as to favor a murderous dictator.

At a conceptual level, it represents the idea that human civilization as we know it will not survive a 21st Century that features the successful invasion of sovereign nations by war criminals.

Outside of that, it means very little.