“We become brave by doing brave acts,” observed Aristotle in the “Nicomachean Ethics,”—“by being habituated to despise things that are terrible and to stand our ground against them, we become brave, and it is when we have become so that we shall be most able to stand our ground against them.”
Thus began Chapter Six in William J. Bennett’s “Book of Virtues.” The Reagan era U.S. Secretary of Education believed then, as now, that virtues and vices are fixed in our characters through practice.
As Reagan’s point man for education, Bennett understood that people require a thorough appreciation of their cultural inheritance to steel their will for fitting action.
Fitting action on the part of free nations requires the wisdom and the courage of natural leadership. History celebrates leaders as much for their courage in the face of overwhelming odds as it does for their ultimate victories.
The iconic British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, gave his most memorable address in Britain’s darkest hour. He spoke on June 4, 1940, one year before the Nazi-Soviet alliance was broken by Hitler, and some six months before America entered the war.
A Brutal Invasion
On Feb. 24, in the wake of a brutal Russian invasion of his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comic who played an unlikely president in a television series before becoming one in real life, responded to claims by the Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin, that he had already fled his country.Standing in a recognizable location, outside the president’s office on Bankova Street in central Kyiv, flanked by his closest advisers, Zelensky spoke calmly into his phone.
“Good evening, everyone.” he said. “The leader of the party is here. The head of the presidential office is here.” Then, after pointing out that his Prime Minister, Denys Shmyhal and another adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak were also there, Zelensky brought the phone back to himself and said: “The President is here.”
In an electrifying conclusion, Zelensky concluded: “We are all here. Our soldiers are here. The citizens of our country are here. We are all here protecting our independence, our country, and it will continue to be this way. Glory to our defenders. Glory to our heroes. Glory to Ukraine.”
As courageous as Churchill surely was, he delivered his message to the people of the UK from a protected position in a fortified island nation. Zelensky had no such advantage. He spoke from a capital city under siege by a brutal Russian invader. The tenuousness of his security was matched only by the courage of his conviction.
Courage Is Infectious
Ukrainian service members guarding a Black Sea island have been heralded throughout the free world for their defiant response to a Russian warship demanding their surrender.The Ukrainian forces were guarding Zmiinyi Island, which is about 30 miles east of the southern border between Ukraine and Romania, on the Black Sea.
The incident was recorded and its authenticity confirmed by several news sources. “This is a Russian warship,” a Russian voice could be heard saying. “I ask you to lay down your arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary deaths. Otherwise, you will be bombed.”
In a few moments, a defiant response came from young Ukrainian voices: “Russian warship. Go [expletive] yourself.” It was reported that during a briefing in Washington, D.C., Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova confirmed all 13 of the defenders were killed in the fighting that followed. Zelensky announced they would posthumously be awarded the title “Hero of Ukraine.” From a wider moral perspective, they became heroes of the Free World.
Up to now, Putin’s victims in Eastern Europe showed limited resistance. The West showed little interest in interrupting his ambitions. But, last week’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine was a brazen challenge to freedom loving people around the world.
Ukraine is bravely holding out at an enormously high cost in lives, social disruption, and property damage. The nation’s defense units have bravely resisted Russia’s advancing forces. Ukrainians are calling on us for help.
Putin has demonstrated that the Bolshevik impulse can last a lifetime. Like all his post-war protégés, he has adopted the simplistic strategy of the post-modern revolutionary. Brand your opponents as Nazis and take every measure necessary to destroy them. Today, he alludes to the potential use of battlefield nuclear weapons if he cannot have his way.
Vladimir Putin has been willfully delusional about the purpose of NATO and the alliance’s intent to strike Russia. Paranoia about the West serves his cynical political ambition to remain President of Russia for life. He is convinced that Ukraine can be turned into a willing participant in the resurrection of a Russian empire.
But Ukrainians have other plans for their country, and the world has learned that they have the courage and determination to pay an enormous price for their independent national destiny.
The clash of Zelensky and Putin is morally akin to the story of David and Goliath. It is about the dauntless courage of youth in opposition to the evil of a terrible giant—the use of a child’s weaponry against a seemingly invincible opponent. But, as we all know, Goliath fell.
Even among the Russian people, there is growing resistance to Vladimir Putin’s ambitions. The West cannot afford to stand idly by and permit a tyrannous domino effect to advance throughout the world.
