The US should continue to use public diplomacy so that the world does not get distracted and knows that Russia is the aggressor. But Washington must also be prepared with sanctions and other tools in case these efforts fail.

This week the editors discuss the Ukraine-Russia crisis, an article by Mark Royce comparing the Soviet threat during the Cold War and the current China challenge, and a book review of Tracy McKenzie’s We the Fallen People.

Soviet Russia demonstrated enormously greater fighting ability than has Red China, and yet even that temporarily invincible totalitarian regime is no more.

With Ukraine languishing outside the safety of the NATO alliance, the consensus seems to be that there is little the alliance can do as Putin enforces his latter-day Brezhnev Doctrine. That consensus view is wrong.

Someone like me who once lived in a totalitarian society finds it surprising and troubling that so many American churches have defined their mission as “to work for peace and justice in our world” but have neglected the defense of freedom as an essential part of their public ministry.

Russia’s play for influence in Central Asia is a wake-up call to the free world.

A nationalized religion and a distinct alphabet unified the Armenians living in the Byzantine Empire and Sassanid Iran, and upholding the essence of what it meant to be Armenian.

We would all do well to remember the story of Private George Mergenthaler and to honor his legacy by rediscovering this sense of duty and pride.

In 1961, Lee Edwards wrote from Germany, “If the United States and its allies do not stand firm, the concentration camp will soon add another two million inmates who presently live in West Berlin.”