We open with an intercepted phone call by US state department officials to organize a new government weeks before a violent overthrow of the current one has taken place. The conversation between assistant US secretary of state Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt details - with uncanny accuracy - what will be the future government of Ukraine.

In the following weeks the democratically elected (and undeniably corrupt) president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovich, will be violently overthrown and flee to Russia. Those who overthrew the democratically elected president come, in part, from an assortment of reactionary factions in Ukraine. Some have open affiliations with neo-Nazism while others, such as the Svoboda Party, downplay their past commitment to white nationalism and chose instead to highlight their commitment to "anti-corruption."

The exact role of the US government in the violent overthrow of President Yanukovich is hard to say though President Obama admitted the US did help "broker a deal to transition power" in an interview with CNN last Sunday.

Ukraine had, since the ending of Cold War, taken a neutral position between Europe and Russia - neither Russian nor European. This was a position previously endorsed by the United States and Europe which, as of yet, has not let Ukraine into NATO nor the European Union. After the violent overthrow of Yankukovich by those self-identifying as the Euormaidan Ukraine's neutrality was over as those in power in Kiev made it clear they wanted to become part of Europe. The response in east Ukraine (Kiev, where this all went down, is in the west) and Russia was predictable and largely predicted - they retaliated. Separatists in the east declared independence and Russia snatched/snatched back Crimea which became part of the Russian federation.

Then came a war that is still raging between US and EU-backed Ukraine army and "volunteer" neofascist battalions and separatist forces backed by Russia over territory in the east especially the Donbass region.The conflict has already led to the deaths of over 5,000 people with both sides being cited as committing war crimes by international rights organizations.

The US/EU retaliation for the retaliation by the separatists and Russia was a sanctions regime against Russia which has - along with dropping oil prices - crippled the Russian economy. Though there is little evidence the economic downturn has been a serious problem for the Putin government which is coasting on extremely high poll numbers largely due to the Russian population seeing President Putin as standing up to Western aggression. The notion that "increasing the cost" of the war for Russia will drive President Putin away from his position on Ukraine is completely absurd given that Putin is having great political success cynically playing the "foreign enemy" card that has worked for every Russian ruler since time immemorial. Escalations by the US and Europe only strengthen Putin's domestic position which, like all politicians, is his chief concern.

Which brings us to the current state of affairs.

This week the national security establishment - still overrun with neoconservatives - proposed an escalation in the conflict, specifically that the US should begin giving the Ukrainian government weapons it knows will be used in war crimes against separatists in the east, a move that will undoubtedly provoke Russia into doubling down on its covert support for the separatists if not outright fully invading Ukraine with the Russian army. US forces are already within Ukraine training Ukraine fighters in the west to kill separatists. How does this end?

Assistant secretary Nuland recently declared "Ukraine's frontline for freedom is ours as well." Is this true? If so then we must do everything, including risk nuclear oblivion, to stop separatism and Russian influence in Ukraine - our freedom is at stake. If it isn't true then we may be risking immense suffering if not our own destruction for a poorly thought out foreign adventure courtesy of the neoconservative clique in Washington.

Let's not do that again.