Throughout most of the 20th century, the United States of America and the Soviet Union(USSR) were engaged in a bitter rivalry that encompassed the entire world. Although there were very few direct military conflicts between the two superpowers, each country deeply wanted to see the other’s downfall. Finally, in the early 1990’s, the Soviet Union collapsed, leaving the U.S. as the world’s only superpower.

With the fall of the USSR, many of the countries that made up the union broke away from Russia and became independent nations. One of these countries was Ukraine. After the breakup of the USSR in 1991, the leaders of the three largest Slavic nations, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, signed the Belavezha accords. In this document, Russia agreed to respect the territorial borders of Ukraine. In the past few months, however, Russia has not lived up to its part of the deal.

In February, “unidentified” armed forces began to invade the Crimean peninsula which is a part of Ukraine. Although Russia denied having any part in the conflict, Ukraine and other Western countries including the U.S. continue to claim that the armed forces consisted of Russian Special Forces. Eventually, Russia sent in troops claiming that they were there to defend ethnic Russians in the region. In March, Russia officially annexed Crimea. The Russian invasion of Ukraine violates the treaty they signed so, as a result, the U.S. and a number of other nations agreed to aid Ukraine if the treaty was violated. However, another war is not necessary for the US. In fact, another war should be avidly avoided.

In the past decade, the U.S. has been involved in two large-scale wars, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, as well as a large number of regional conflicts and insurgencies such as the Libyan Civil War during the Arab Spring in 2011. The U.S. is often portrayed as a nation that considers itself the “police” of the world, but it really is not necessary to get involved in every single conflict going on in the world, especially since the Ukrainian crisis has almost nothing to do with the U.S.

The U.S.’s arguments against Russia are very hypocritical. In fact, the U.S. has caused its fair share of rebellions and revolutions. In 1903 when Colombia, a South American nation, didn’t agree to building the Panama Canal, the U.S. couldn’t just take no for an answer, so it armed the rebels and helped Panama gain independence. In the Middle East, the US put dictators in power in place of popularly elected leaders because they were anti-western. From events such as these, it is evident that the U.S. certainly can’t take the moral high ground regarding Russia’s intentions in Crimea.

The problems in Europe should be resolved by Europe. Is Putin wrong for illegally invading Ukraine or is he right for trying to protect ethnic Russians in a country they didn’t want to live in? It’s not the United States’ job to decide. The US should re-enter a period of isolationism. After all, we have many problems that need to be solved here at home, like the lacking education system and the high incarceration rates. The U.S. needs to worry about the U.S. first, and then maybe the nation can help out some people who ask for its help.