(1) To avoid having the world become led by nations hostile to American national security;
(2) To maintain the value and attractiveness of the US dollar as the global reserve currency, which permits us to finance our massive public deficit due to spending on Medicare, most of all;
(3) To protect American trade and economic interests and to have access to the world's resources; and
(4) To keep in check nations (Russia and China) that have nuclear weapons that could utterly destroy the US and its allies within a matter of hours.
Saying that Russia and Ukraine are in a "civil war" presupposes that Ukraine is inherently a part of Russia. That is simply untrue, historically or legally. Indeed, at the end of the Cold War, Ukraine gave up its stock of Soviet nuclear weapons in return for assurances from Russia, the US, and the UK that Ukraine's independence would be honored and protected.
As for what you refer to as Ukraine's dysfunction, it is a far better place than Russia, a dismal nation run by gangsters.
Like Red China ? The same Red China that's been getting our military and nuclear secrets handed to them on a silver platter since at least the Clintoon Regime (and quite possibly, even earlier).
"(2) To maintain the value and attractiveness of the US dollar as the global reserve currency, which permits us to finance our massive public deficit due to spending on Medicare, most of all;"
That's gone straight into the toilet. And this beyond obscene spending spree on everything but what needs to be spent on will have consequences for us that will plunge us into third world status before long. And frankly, I think it's already here. Much like Rome, you can only expand out so far before an inevitable collapse.
"(3) To protect American trade and economic interests and to have access to the world's resources; and"
At the point of a gun.
"(4) To keep in check nations (Russia and China) that have nuclear weapons that could utterly destroy the US and its allies within a matter of hours."
And we're doing everything we can to provoke the former, while the latter is undermining us with the help of its installed regime in Washington. What a joke.
"Saying that Russia and Ukraine are in a "civil war" presupposes that Ukraine is inherently a part of Russia. That is simply untrue, historically or legally. Indeed, at the end of the Cold War, Ukraine gave up its stock of Soviet nuclear weapons in return for assurances from Russia, the US, and the UK that Ukraine's independence would be honored and protected."
Because it inherently was a historic and integral part of Russia for hundreds of years. It had 32 years to prove it could stand on its own two feet and establish itself as a modern nation. It summarily failed. We (the U.S.) has no moral justification to protect the rights and interests of a corrupt state that failed to hold up its end of the bargain of being a "grown up" partner. Now, like with any country, you can't expect perfection, but by every reasonable measure, it couldn't do it. Now it has become a threat to the region, and with a deranged self-declared dictator demanding weapons of mass destruction, a threat to world peace.
"As for what you refer to as Ukraine's dysfunction, it is a far better place than Russia, a dismal nation run by gangsters."
Simply untrue.