The opening salvos fired by the Russian army on February 24 marked more than merely the start of a war of aggression. They also signaled the end of the holiday from history enjoyed since 1945 by First World democracies.

Through the long lens of human experience, the peace and prosperity that have been our fortune over the past 77 years are a pleasant aberration from the historic norm.

That norm is found in those myriad wars of conquest waged over the centuries for  reasons of dynastic ambition, economic expansion, jingoism, and religious fanaticism. The brutal truth is that Vladimir Putin is acting in the established tradition of Caesar, Genghis Khan, Suleyman the Magnificent, and Napoleon, to mention just a few of the warlords who dominate our human story.

Oblivious to these facts of real-world life (and death) are four generations of post-war Westerners who’ve grown up knowing nothing but the tranquility of modern, free-market democracy. Yes, we’ve fought brushfire wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Falklands, but always in places far distant from our pristine and inviolate homelands.

Not the savagery of the 1992 Srebrenica massacre, nor the carnage of the 9/11 attacks, nor the barbarism of the Bataclan terrorism sufficed to yank the populations of Western democracies from their self-absorption and complacency.  For years Americans have been assaulted by leftist evangelizing about environmental doom and intersectional privilege, and many seem incapable of recognizing that the only special favor they’ve enjoyed is their temporary amnesty from historical reality.

Case in point, the vacuous stupidity of President Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, whose main concern about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is “the massive emissions consequences to the war.” Nevermind the humanitarian catastrophe caused by Mr Putin’s vile act of unprovoked aggression.

It’s another iron law of history that despots will interpret perceived weakness as an engraved invitation. Thus we must consider the view from the Kremlin.

Over the past few years, Mr. Putin watched as America was wracked by political violence, riven by partisan hostility, and convulsed by debates over social issues he considers degenerate. He saw America elect an infirm president who presided over a humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan and engaged in a spend-a-thon that sent inflation soaring to levels unseen since the 1980s.

No surprise, then, that Mr. Putin would conclude that America is a spent force, an effete former superpower in the throes of terminal decline. From his cloistered confines in Moscow, though, he failed to realize that those clamorous voices of left-wing dissent dominating academia, the mainstream media, and the Democratic Party represent a loud-but-limited segment of America’s body politic.

Thus, Mr. Putin’s miscalculations extend far beyond his delusional overestimation of the Russian military’s operational competence. He thought a shock-and-awe display of overwhelming armed force would intimidate Ukraine into quick submission. Wrong.

He thought European dependence on Russian energy exports would provide him with leverage to negate any possibility of a diplomatic and economic backlash against his invasion of Ukraine. Wrong.

He thought his dream of a resurrected neo-tsarist imperium would appeal to the Russian people. The 200,000 people who’ve fled Russia and the 14,000-plus protesters arrested at anti-war demonstrations prove Mr. Putin wrong, yet again.

Writing from Australia, I can only hope that the self-inflicted Russian debacle will serve as a cautionary tale to tyrants closer to home, that Xi Jinping will think twice, or even thrice, about setting China on a similar military adventure against Taiwan.

Hope alone is not enough, though, because the Biden administration appears far more intent on imposing wokeness on the American military than promoting its war-fighting capabilities.

“We face real threats across the world,” Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee wrote just a few days before Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. “Yet the Biden administration is more focused on promoting its leftist social agenda in the military instead of countering China, Russia, and Iran or creating an effective counterterrorism plan.”

To paraphrase the words of Leon Trotsky, progressives may not be interested in the coming global disorder, but the coming global disorder is interested in them.

The thrashing at the ballot box headed Democrats’ way in November will mark the beginning of America’s return to sanity. Can’t come soon enough for me.

Si vis pacem, para bellum.