To the Journal editor:

I served in the United States Army in the mid-1980s, during the Cold War years. I spent four years training every day for war with Russia.

Yet, when the Soviet Union released the Warsaw Pact nations in a generally peaceful fashion, and eventually broke up completely, I was ready to welcome the new improved Russia with open arms.

I particularly remember my pleasure and optimism as the suddenly-former Soviet nations voluntarily cooperated to compete in the 1992 Olympics as a “Unified Team.” It seemed like a breath of fresh air — like the world was headed in a pretty good direction.

Well, the relatively great Gorbachev was replaced by the flawed Yeltsin, and then Yeltsin was replaced by the ominous Putin. It’s hard to understand what stupidity or madness drove Putin to invade Ukraine, but there he is.

The obvious years-long calculated setup which preceded the invasion, the disingenuous and preposterous grounds used to justify it, and the intentional, criminal brutality with which it has been prosecuted, all shock the world.

In 1994 both the United States and Russia signed the “Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances,” promising to respect and protect Ukraine’s sovereign borders, in exchange for Ukraine voluntarily giving up the many nuclear weapons which they possessed at that time.

Since Russia has chosen not to keep their word in this matter — in such dramatic fashion — it now falls upon the United States and other free democracies around the world to make good on the promises that were made.

I’m no fan of President Biden or of the Democrats in general, but I have to give Biden credit for walking a pretty good line on Ukraine. He has helped rally the world to Ukraine’s cause while letting European leaders take enough of the limelight to avoid that “puppetmaster” look Putin would so love to pin on America.

Biden has managed to “boil the frog” up to the point of this proposed $ 33 billion aid package, slowly enough to not set off a nuclear war, yet rapidly enough to probably rescue Ukraine from Russian takeover.

(The amount of) $33 billion sounds like a lot. But if you spread the cost of our Afghanistan war evenly over the whole 20 years, 33 billion dollars only buys 105 days’ worth.

In my opinion, if we could afford the 20 years for a very dubious cause, we can surely afford the 105 days for something this necessary.