Winston Churchill described World War II as the “unnecessary war.” He believed, rightly, that the West’s failure to understand and counter early on the territorial and other hegemonic ambitions of its totalitarian foes made an otherwise avoidable conflict inevitable.

That failure was made palpable in the British and French governments’ negotiations with Adolf Hitler behind the backs of their Czech allies. The resulting agreement produced not peace in that time, but the loss of a Free World nation and set in motion Axis aggression in Europe and elsewhere.

The bilateral and NATO diplomacy now underway with Russia’s Putin, excluding the Ukrainians, is signaling again the West’s irresolution and weakness. Tragically, as in 1938, the world seems likely soon to reap the whirlwind, not only in Eastern Europe, but in Asia and the Middle East, in the next, horrific and unnecessary global war.

This is Frank Gaffney.