The aging leaders now ruling in Washington and Moscow have abandoned their responsibility to future generations. They are enthralled to their own visions of restoring past glory. They are men whose time has passed yet refuse to yield. In failing to grasp the earthly dangers of our time, they have endangered not only their own people but us all.

Wartime surveys in Ukraine are meaningful and revealing. But conjuring a transcendent Ukrainian general will in wartime from the findings of surveys funded by advocacy groups in government-controlled Ukraine demand skepticism. Ukraine is a large and diverse country, and the least we can do is acknowledge and respect its socio-cultural and geographic complexity.

War is in the air. As most everybody knows by now, Russia has assembled a formidable force at various locations near Ukraine’s borders. Satellite images of military equipment and amateur video of lines of tanks convey the menace. Diplomats are talking but some are also withdrawing from the Ukrainian capital. Few are neutral or nuanced about the crisis.