Further Thoughts on Russia’s War against Ukraine

Appeasement of Putin should not be an option, nor should a falling off of our unflagging support for Ukraine. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t continually search for avenues to peace. In an insightful Washington Post op-ed yesterday, Harvard professor of Government Graham Allison quoted John F. Kennedy’s remark: “Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war.”

No course of action can eliminate risk. We still have to thread the needle. What we must not do is slack off or shrink from this epochal struggle between the forces of tyranny and those of liberal democracy.