The current Ukraine crisis...

[YinYang]

So I've obviously been giving this some thought, after listening to countless opinions and assessments from this or that individual with such and such noteworthy credentials...

If you stand back and you look at the bigger picture, we're having two competing ideologies. People the world over want freedom... freedom of movement, freedom to direct their own lives, freedom to think for themselves, freedom of press, freedom to govern themselves, freedom from authoritarianism, freedom to reach their highest potential...etc.

Putin is upset by NATO's eastward expansion, but the truth of the matter is that the ex-Soviet nations that are now NATO countries, 'they' were pushing for NATO membership. 'They' were the drive behind it. So what has happened here? They were standing there back in the day looking Eastward and looking Westward, and they decided that they want what those people in the West has.

No-one wants authoritarianism. 

In the words of Winston Churchill:

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…

The Ukranians have decided what they want, and now they find themselves in the unfortunate position to have to fight for it.