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At age 18, I served in Vietnam during what was effectively the last year of the war.

That unique exposure afforded me opportunities in three regions of the country with overlapping experiences in Cambodia.

I watched us – after 35 years of direct and indirect participation – walk away from could be well-argued as a just fight for the preservation of the free people of Vietnam and effectively surrender the country to the communists behind “peace with honor” pretense.

It’s important to participate in the events of your time, and I’ve never regretted going. Nor have I forgotten what I saw — or failed to recognize that we repeated the exact same folly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

My takeaway? 

America knows how to kill and be killed as well as anyone of the planet.

We do not know how to nation build, maintain political will, or maturely keep our eye on the doable goal of protecting America while undertaking the undoable goal of policing the world.

I am terribly concerned that we are doing Vietnam again in the Ukraine.

NATO lost its way long ago —

When the Soviet Union collapsed in the early ‘90s, NATO became a country club without a golf course.

Members bickered, skipped paying their dues, and counted on the rich president of the club – the U.S. – to keep things afloat.

Dependably, the bored NATO team also ran their mouths a lot. Including the notion that Ukraine and other border countries with Russia would make excellent additions to the club.

Putin believed them.

Putin is a psychopathic opportunist –

Vladimir Putin began his career as a member of the KGB. There he learned how to be a sociopathic thug as well as a hyper-dedicated Russian patriot.

What’s a Russian patriot? 

It’s two things:

 (1) A Russian, like most Russians, who remembers that the Soviet Union lost over 25 million people in WWII. 

(2) A Russian, like most Russians, who remembers the Soviet Union as a world superpower and laments that loss of status.

NATO’s folly in thinking they could knock on Putin’s border without consequence laid the groundwork for where we are today.

Biden is an incompetent opportunist —

The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, and with Joe Biden that has meant 50 years of political opportunism, manipulation, self-service and pretext. There is absolutely no position on any political matter that he has not been willing to embrace to secure his aspirations as “the big guy.”

Unfortunately, flexibility does not insure competency. This man can talk, but he can’t walk.

His presidency can be summed up with two events:

(1) His impulsive, catastrophic and humiliating capitulation in Afghanistan.

(2) His repeat of the same on our borders.

Afghanistan told the world – once again – that America cannot be counted on. Our porous borders tell the world that if we can’t protect ourselves, how can we begin to protect others?

Biden gave Putin confidence.

There’s no such thing as an easy war —

Putin invaded the Ukraine with the expectation of a quick victory. When you surround yourself in like-minded sycophants, it’s easy to do dumb things like that.

It’s extra-easy when people like Biden talk about supporting the Ukraine, but send words, not weapons.

The Biden administration did send sanctions when Putin invaded, but with few exceptions they have had little or no meaningful impact on Russia — and their leader remains as popular as ever.

Biden wishes his approval numbers were remotely so good.

The Ukrainians have been nothing short of spectacular in resisting Russian aggression.

The Russians have been nothing short of ruthless and incompetent in applying that aggression.

Here’s the rub – Putin is dedicated and not likely to give in. So is the Ukraine, but they are not equipped to militarily withstand Russia indefinitely.

There are two reasons for that:

(1) Though we are late to the game, NATO is supplying arms to the Ukrainians, but we do not have stockpiles remotely up to the task at hand. 

(2) China is seeing an opportunity to partner with Russia and change the world’s end game by undermining the military power, economic foundation, and influence of the U.S.

What should we do —

Thanks to our country’s continual confusion with the difference in protecting America and attempting to police the world, we are in another Vietnam — and it’s too late to walk it back.

There are also good arguments for supporting the Ukrainians with the tools to defend themselves, but it should have been done long ago, before NATO’s talking heads set the stage for Putin’s gamble.

Now we are in an ever-accelerating battle of wits, will and weaponry.

History tells us that events like this have a way of getting out of control and sucking everything into a vortex of chaos and harm.

Somewhere between acceleration and surrender is a wobbly place called peace negotiation.

So far, there is no evidence of strategic leadership with the creditability, motivation and competency to help this happen.

Let’s hope they arise.

Otherwise, there is a very real danger America may have another opportunity to play at “kill and be killed” on a scale that is – for the moment – inconceivable.