There are many who believe there is no such thing as a “good” war. I disagree but I have to admit their position certainly merits support if one looks at the wars that America has been involved in since I was born.

My generation suffered through the Vietnam war which began in the early 1960s and ended ignominiously in 1975 when the helicopter left the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon, leaving many behind, the war lost with 55,000 Americans dead and tens of thousands who returned and many of them not in a good way.

Then there was the invasion of Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom) which toppled Saddam Hussein and bestowed “democracy” in Iraq with the result that Iraq is no longer a bulwark against Iran but rather its majority population of Shia Muslims has made it a vassal state of Iran, America’s great enemy.

Then there was Afghanistan, America’s longest war, begun because of the horror of 9/11. It became a nation building boondoggle and when it ended, like a carbon copy of Vietnam but 50 years later, the last American plane left with people trying to scramble aboard, the war having been lost, and the Taliban having returned.

The toll of these three conflicts: Trillions of dollars spent, thousands of American lives lost and not only no victories, but awful outcomes.

Then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year. But this one may be different. It may be a “good” war in the sense that there is a “good” versus a “bad” side. In my neighborhood, small blue and yellow Ukrainian flags dot lawns and hang from mailboxes. I think it is more than rooting for David against Goliath and has to do with rooting for freedom.

Many are not enamored of support for the Ukrainians. They include the current Republican presidential front runners, Trump and DeSantis, as well as academic experts, who argue that Russia has the need to protect its borders. Some of these characters even posit that Ukraine is to blame because it sought to be a part of the European Union. DeSantis issued a statement to Tucker Carlson just this week calling the invasion of Ukraine a “territorial dispute.” Noah Rothman described DeSantis’ comment as follows: “Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is a ‘dispute’ over the territory in the same way a bank robber and a depositor have a ‘dispute’ over money.”

President Biden has been remarkable in his ability to marshal the resources of the Free World against the Russian invasion. In this endeavor, he has been assisted by another octogenarian, who usually says “no” to everything that Biden wants. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Minority Leader, and President Biden are on the same page. Both Biden and McConnell were born during the “last good war,” that being World War II when there was a “good” side, and a “bad” side. Both came of age at a time when there was a general consensus that World War II had been absolutely necessary and correct. It helped that the war was “won.”

In fairness, there was not an unblemished end to World War II. The Russians were also “winners” and they, in Churchill’s words delivered in 1946, had placed an Iron Curtain around Eastern Europe, a curtain that would not be lifted until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. Thus, from 1945 until 1989, the peoples of Eastern Europe had to suffer living under surveillance in police states without the freedoms that Western Europeans and Americans were then enjoying.

Churchill was one of the very few who, early on, understood Hitler. He certainly understood Stalin (as did the Ukrainians since he intentionally starved millions of them to death in 1932-33 in a genocide known as Holodomor) and he would’ve understood Putin. Churchill, despite his outdated defense of the English Colonial Empire, had a remarkably keen eye for messianic leaders. He understood that they were not to be bargained with nor their demands met. Hitler, Stalin, and Putin were, or are, messianic leaders. Hitler, with his devotion to the Aryan “race;” Stalin, with his insistence in 1945 that the next war would be between the communist East and the decadent West; Putin, with his vision of a renewed Russian empire. Messianic leaders care only for their vision, the rest be dammed.

Biden and McConnell grew up in a world where Churchill’s insights were valued and, I believe, this contributes to their current joint position on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Contrast Biden’s behavior with that of President Obama who did not grow up in a world infused with the lessons of World War II. These are really the lessons of history. Obama was an inept “foreign policy” President. He announced a “redline” against Bashar al-Assad’s use of poisonous gas against Syrian civilians; Assad, assisted by his Russian ally, used the gas and nothing happened. When Putin took over the Ukrainian area called the Crimea in 2014, the White House protested but effectively did nothing.

If America hopes to compete with China in this century, it must do more than limit TikTok. America and its allies are “shining cities on the hill” proclaiming the value of freedom to the world. They have what surveillance states like Russia and China will never allow.

The war in Ukraine is a clear instance of where freedom is a stake. It is not a fight over territory, although territory is involved. It is really a fight over values and there’s only one place for America to be in this particular fight.

I do not consider myself a warmonger. I came of age during the Vietnam war which, I believe, was a total mess from start to end. I have seen the results in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, there may be such a thing as “good war” and I believe we are seeing that in the Ukraine.

A few Sundays ago there was a Gospel at Mass in which Jesus said that if somebody struck you on your cheek, turn and offer the other cheek.

I turned to my companion, Sister Dot Malone, SSND, and said: “Boy, I’m glad the Ukrainians didn’t listen to that advice.”