The trouble ahead will worsen. It must. The consequences of political extremism only grow with tolerance for it, and a postponement of confrontation with it.
The disintegration of the Russian Army into a puddle of cowardice and criminality will make the world more unstable, by destabilizing Putin. Putin has revealed the rot of his society that his propaganda and cleverness so long covered. His reputation for competence and shrewdness has given way to the first real scent of weakness.
Finland and Sweden are now members of an enlarged and more lethal NATO. The United States of America must ensure that the Ukrainians have the weapons, technology, intelligence, training and investment they need to permanently secure their sovereignty from the Russian threat.
There is no question about the malice of Chinese intentions towards human rights, religious freedom, the rule of law, international treaties, intellectual property rights, privacy, freedom of the seas and international boundaries. The Chinese superpower has blustered with the same type of venom and nonsense that flows from Putin’s Kremlin.
The guarantor of global peace is the United States of America and a broad alliance of free democracies that have a potent military capability that can defeat any aggression anywhere — should they choose to act.
What should America’s national security posture be? It’s simple. The United States must remain the world’s dominant economic and military power as a primary goal of national policy. This means that the United States and her collective security partners must maintain military dominance on the ground, in the air, on the seas, in space, and in cyberspace in perpetuity.