Overnight, Vladimir Putin went to full-on war in Ukraine. The Russian dictator is appears set on nothing less than the conquest of that neighboring nation, demilitarizing it, changing its government and dominating it henceforth in a manner reminiscent of the Kremlin’s previous enslavement of Ukrainians and others during the Russian empire and its Soviet counterpart.

Regrettably, such aggression seems unlikely to end there. Putin and his partners in China, Iran and North Korea appear to perceive a window of opportunity, thanks to weakness in Washington and the West more generally, to use violence to reorder things to their liking.

In the face of such dangers, America must revert to a policy of peace through strength aimed at demonstrating convincingly that the United States and its allies have the capacity and the will to counter aggressors forcefully, not just punish them economically.

This is Frank Gaffney.