President Joe Biden, I had hit the reset button after the exit debacle in Afghanistan. This was a rookie mistake from a near 80-year-old, even if you still do not see it that way. I also hit the reset button on your statements not matching the facts — “I will not leave any Americans behind in Afghanistan,” only to leave behind hundreds.

But, Mr. Biden, when I heard you say that you were going to work “like the devil” to prevent an invasion of Ukraine. I got worried. Yet I wanted to believe you were going to be right. I wanted to believe that the threat of sanctions would deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading. You were wrong. Now the Ukrainians are suffering like hell. Wait. But you came back and stated after the invasion that you “never said sanctions would prevent Russia from invading Ukraine.” Wait. The media, on the left and right, would not let you get away with this statement which did not match the facts. They pounced by showing all your top surrogates parroting your feeling and earlier sentiments.

Following Biden’s leadership, the U.S. and the world did not react other than to threaten sanctions as Russia continuously mounted military forces on the border of Ukraine. Biden and European leaders refused to accept or read the writing on the wall — invasion forthcoming. Because Ukraine did not belong to NATO, they had reason not to intervene. But was it morally the right thing to do?

We must never allow that to happen again. We have the intelligence to pick up massive movements of armed forces. From a military perspective, we must match if not surpass whatever an adversary is doing to checkmate them — thus preventing a military conflict in the first place.

Now, I fear, it is too late. Ukraine is over matched. It is highly unlikely the Ukrainians are going to have a “Taliban moment” where they force a powerful nation to fumble. Without the help of the U.S. military or European forces they will be crushed.

So, we have two choices: intervene or help the Ukrainians understand they need to stand down, seek another day, and another way to prevail.

Watching from the sidelines as the innocent kid gets his butt kicked by the schoolyard bully is not what I ever thought we would be subject to. That should not be an option.

Ukrainians do not deserve this fate. It is truly a case of evil beating the innocent, at least for now. Remember Russia and Afghanistan.

Proclaiming that the bully — Putin — is bad, or maybe mentally unstable, really does not help matters.

According to a recent poll, most Americans do not feel Biden is up to the job. Only 37% approve of his job performance with just 33% supporting his handling of this crisis. That’s troubling.

This brings us to strategy. We proclaimed we do not want to fight or bring about World War III. It is like a football team telling its opponent it won’t run the ball. It will only pass. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy as to the outcome of the game. Winning teams leave all options on the table.

If you are reluctant to fight, the bully will push you to fight. Fear emboldens the bully. He will eventually throw sand in your eyes to get a reaction out of you. That would encourage him to pounce on you. Everyone who has gone to a public grade school has seen this movie.

The other thing to remember is that once a bully engages in a fight, he needs an exit ramp or else it could get bad for everyone involved. Without it, he can become irrational.

Biden and European leaders seem to accept this scenario playing out. They’ll use banks to stop the tanks.

Will it work? We must pray it does. Otherwise, we would have a lot on our consciences — that we had the ability to stop this beating and did nothing meaningful to help.

I wonder how America will appear in this history. If you had the wherewithal to save lives but opted not to do so, it is unfortunate.

Punishing Russia via sanctions is an entirely different matter with its unique challenges. In time we’ll see if this strategy plays out for better or worse. We should remember that excessive sanctions failed with the Empire of Japan. It led to Pearl Harbor.

But the worse aspect of this experience is painful because we are viewing the hourly atrocities on television, knowing that the world’s greatest democracy, the wealthiest nation on earth, with the most powerful military in the world, is standing by on the sidelines, watching.

May God help Ukraine.

Gary Franks served three terms as U.S. representative for Connecticut’s 5th District. He was the first Black Republican elected to the House in nearly 60 years and New England’s first Black member of the House. Host: podcast “We Speak Frankly.” Author: “With God, For God, and For Country.” @GaryFranks

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