Dear Mr. POTUS,

Let us not mince words. The time for niceties should have ended when you bragged about grabbing women between the legs without consent, and often, against their will. You have destroyed America’s credibility and pride. The blood of Ukrainian babies are no longer solely on Putin’s hands.

It is utterly appalling that the United States has voted against a resolution condemning Russian aggression. The other countries: Israel, Haiti, Hungary, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Niger, Sudan, Belarus, North Korea, Syria, Eritrea, Mali, and Nicaragua. What illustrious company you keep, Mr. POTUS; a veritable who’s who of authoritarianism, corruption, and moral bankruptcy. But, no stranger to bankruptcy, there you stand shoulder to shoulder with them. I am embarrassed.

Let us be clear: the blame for this abomination rests solely on Vladimir Putin. Not debatable. If Russian forces laid down their arms, Europe would be at peace. If Ukrainian forces laid down theirs, Kyiv would be a smoldering ruin, and Putin’s insatiable appetite for conquest would run amuck. Getting this wrong is not merely embarrassing—it is a dereliction of duty. It is a betrayal of everything this nation has stood for since World War II, so says the other one—Mitch McConnell..

How could one possibly believe that appeasement will check the ambitions of a tyrant like Putin? That’s as naïve today as it was in 1939. An end to ANY war that fails to constrain Russian aggression, ensure Ukrainian sovereignty, or strengthen American credibility is unconditional surrender. It is a capitulation to the axis of aggressors stretching from Pyongyang to Moscow. No doubt they salivate for an America too weak, too divided, and too indecisive to defend its own interests, let alone those of its true friends.

So here is the bitter truth, served with all the scornful disdain it deserves: this latest bêtise has left the world speechless. This vote will be etched in history, written in our children and their children's children textbooks as America’s number one kakistocracy of errors. A blunder measured at 12 on the Richter scale. The blood on Putin’s hands is matched only by the odium of your complicity, as grotesque as the smoke rising from the pyres of human history’s darkest hours—a haunting reminder of what happens when the world’s good men allow evil to flourish by saying nothing.

The President of the United States of America is supposed to be the leader of the free world. You, Mr. POTUS, have turned that legacy into a farce. You’ve squandered respect, dignity, and global influence—leaving nothing but dishonor, disgrace, and shame in your wake. The time to be an American is now. If you cannot rise to this moment, resign. The world is watching and it running out of patience.

I really miss Joe Biden.

Dan Silverthorne