Like the rest of the world, I’ve watched with dread and admiration as events unfolded this past week in Ukraine.

Dread at the thought of a major war in Europe that could morph into a world war. Dread that this ogre of a man, Vladimir Putin, is willing to destroy a country to salve his insecurities. Dread at the plight of the Ukrainian people who are bearing the brunt of Putin’s aggression.

My admiration for the Ukrainian people and their leader has been boundless. It is heartening and, I hope, instructive to us all to see a people so passionate about their country, so resolute, with a willingness to sacrifice everything, including their lives, for its survival.

Meanwhile we, on the other side of the globe, seem to take little interest in the common good. Rather we stand ready to squabble and take umbrage at the most insignificant infringement, real or imagined, of our individual autonomy.

The war in Ukraine brings those trivialities into sharp perspective.

While he’s received criticism from the usual suspects, many analysts have credited President Biden for ushering in unprecedented European unity.

It would be nice to report how our Congress, our elected representatives, have put aside what have seemed to be intractable differences (they are a representation of us, sad to say) and have come together, but that is not the case.

“They (Republicans) are so determined to see President Biden fail that they would let President Putin succeed,” The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank wrote following Tuesday’s State of the Union.

Milbank contrasted the bearhugs George W. Bush gave Democratic leaders in a similar situation following the 9/11 attacks with the Twitter sniping some Republicans engaged in during Biden’s speech.

Among those absent, ostensibly objecting to mandatory coronavirus testing, who spent the evening sniping at Biden via Twitter, was Sen. Ted Cruz (R.-Texas).

As for Cruz, Max Boot, also writing in The Post noted how Cruz last year was circulating a TikTok video showing “a muscular Russian soldier doing pushups, parachuting out of an airplane, and using a rifle. Cruz contrasted this Kremlin propaganda unfavorably with a U.S. Army recruiting video featuring a female corporal who was raised by two mothers. “Holy crap,” Cruz tweeted: “Perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea…” He went on to blame “Dem politicians & woke media” for trying to turn U.S. troops “into pansies.”

Boot continues: … The Internet is full of videos showing Russian troops running out of fuel and food in Ukraine, weeping after surrendering, and complaining that they are being used as “cannon fodder.” There are reports of Russian soldiers sabotaging their own vehicles rather than fight in a war they want no part of. The Russians are even leaving their dead on the battlefield — a shocking thing to see for U.S. soldiers, whose creed contains the line, “I will never leave a fallen comrade.”

Former President Trump, a longtime Putin fanboy, has repeatedly called the Russian dictator a “genius.”

According to CNN, Trump told radio hosts Buck Sexton and Clay Travis last week: “I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful.”

More recently Trump has changed his tune, calling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a holocaust.

It’s not unthinkable that this war could expand to include NATO, which would include the United States.

The sooner we and our leaders develop a unified sense of purpose in curtailing Putin, the more effective we’re going to be in repelling what could prove to be an existential threat.

Birney Imes ([email protected]) is the former publisher of The Dispatch.

Birney Imes III is the immediate past publisher of The Dispatch.