Asked if the U.S. should send troops to fight beside the Ukrainians, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said Sunday the time may have come.

Russian President Vladimir Putin "will only stop when we stop him," said Coons.

"We are in a very dangerous moment where it is important that ... we in Congress and the administration come to a common position about when we are willing to go the next step and to send not just arms but troops to the aid in defense of Ukraine."

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 "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion."

So reads Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution.

Historically, that constitutional duty -- to protect America's states against invasion -- has been the province of the president of the United States, the chief executive, who today is Joe Biden.

How did Biden's predecessors do in discharging their duty to secure America's borders?

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The prime ministers of Sweden and Finland, Magdalena Andersson and Sanna Marin, both signaled Wednesday that they will likely be applying for membership in NATO.

The "prospect" is most "welcome," says The Washington Post: "Finland and Sweden Should Join NATO."

The editorial was titled "A Way to Punish Putin."

Before joining the rejoicing in NATO capitals, we might inspect what NATO membership for these two Nordic nations would mean for the United States.

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When he arrived at Christ the Savior Cathedral to pay his respects to the ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who had died of COVID-19, Russian President Vladimir Putin carried a clutch of red roses.

The man beside him was carrying a briefcase.

That briefcase appeared to be Russia's version of the "football" that is carried by a military aide to U.S. presidents and contains the codes for launching strategic nuclear weapons.

French King Louis XIV had stamped upon his cannon the inscription, "Ultima Ratio Regum" -- The Last Argument of Kings.

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Speaking of the seven-week war in Ukraine ignited by Vladimir Putin, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is warning us to expect a war that lasts for years.

"I do think this is a very protracted conflict ... measured in years," Milley told Congress. "I don't know about a decade, but at least years, for sure."

As our first response, said Milley, we should build more military bases in Eastern Europe and begin to rotate U.S. troops in and out.

Yet this sounds like a prescription for a Cold War II that America ought to avert, not fight. For the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, while a declared goal of U.S. policy, is not a vital U.S. interest to justify risking a calamitous war with Russia.

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