When drawing the lines of nation states, one possible approach is to grab the straight edge and run the pencil along ethnic or cultural lines. Another approach is to draw them to divide up spoils among conflict victors. In places where the latter principle is prioritized, ethnic lines are often split. Like water running downhill, inevitably forces seem to conspire to re-draw the lines to more closely conform with the wills of the people who were pseudo-arbitrarily pulled apart.

When ISIS started taking over the Middle East, I recall super-imposing various maps-- for example, one showing Sunni and Shia majorities-- and remarking at how ISIS's so-called "New Caliphate" was less culturally arbitrary than the lines the English and French had drawn up long ago. Another example would be the Balkans, which inevitably split between the Albanians, the Greeks, the Romanians, and so forth. Some modern-day countries are "fake": take Belgium for instance, which has major Flemish, French, German, and Italian populations in lieu of a unified "Belgian" identity.

Another "fake" country so-to-speak is Ukraine, which drove a wedge between ethnic Russians and the historical Ruthenians. I have a Moldovan friend whose father grew up in and then later returned to Crimea. This father was and is a Russian loyalist. When the Russians took the peninsula, he and his entire community did not perceive it as an invasion: they viewed it as a homecoming. In their eyes, they had been drawn on the wrong side of a pseudo-arbitrary line in the first place!

Russia's current military operations have the same flavor to me. I wouldn't be surprised if the majority-- or at least a critical mass minority-- of the people in the operational areas would prefer to be a part of Russia. I'm not a huge fan of armies marching around invading places, but I also recognize that sometimes that is simply how these splits eventually get resolved.

Either way, I don't want the United States to get involved. Two hundred trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities doesn't leave much choice. And beyond that, the wisdomless Nancy Pelosi and her ilk don't even know the difference between Hungary and Ukraine, much less the elaborate historical and cultural issues at play in the conflict. Any meddling they do will just make things worse.