Following a very stunning and dangerous setback for Ukraine, the election of Donald Trump poses even greater obstacles to any favorable outcome in that war.

Because Ukraine is an ally to the U.S. and adheres to the doctrines of democracy and Russia represents a diametrically opposite form of governance the fundamental question is, “Who will we support under a Trump Administration?”

After all the variables have been considered, are we going to support nations that agree with and confirm the principles grounded in freedom and liberties afforded by a democracy or a nation that will capitulate to the whims and threats of a communist dictator?

It is implausible and dangerous to run with the foxes and bay with the hounds. This nation cannot function under the pretext of a freedom loving people and yet cave into the demands of a bully.

Far too many Americans have been contaminated by the misinformation and pro- paganda that says because Vladimir Putin flatters Trump he is America’s friend. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Putin’s political survival is dependent upon this struggle — make no mistake. As a U.S. Marine in Vietnam, we captured North Vietnamese troops that carried Russian-made weapons. Russia was our enemy then and since Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin and now Vladimir Putin, they each have been sternly committed to Khrushchev’s promise to bury America. How can we be so naive?

How in God’s name can intelligent American citizens entrust their children’s futures to be in the hands of a communist dictator? A communist leader, who is guided far more by the communist loyalists in the Kremlin than his association with Trump. Does Trump or his MAGA followers understand that the struggle for geo-political balance of world power and dominance has nothing whatsoever to do with friendship but the strategic maneuvers to conquer territories and then the minds of its populations?

Regardless of any other policy issues with which you may agree or disagree, none will ever reach the significance nor long term implications of America’s ability to maintain its position of balance and strength in Eastern Europe or areas around Ukraine. The fate of NATO in Europe in this area is the father of American democracy around the world.

Those gullible and misinformed MAGA fanatics have become so immersed in the struggle to insure one man’s quest for power that they have lost sight of a much larger issue. The intensity to ensure the political success of Trump has distorted their view of reality and the much broader view of world circumstances where democracy rivals autocracy and the dominance of tyranny and the aspirations of despots!

Every citizen has the right to support and vote for whom he or she chooses, but when personal privilege is in direct contradiction with a larger interest of national security of all Americans, we each are duty bound to make alternative choices for the greater good.

At this moment in America’s history, the guns, tanks and missiles across the borders of Ukraine may very well be ships, submarines or planes off the coast of North Carolina, Virginia and Florida. The physical differences may be thousands of miles apart, but tensions, conflicts and principles that constitute our core values are mutually exclusive and intolerable of each other.

It is only a matter of time and space where the contact frictions grind away until we are only minutes from confrontation. For certain, Putin will not cease his invasive ambitions in Ukraine, so who will be next? Poland, Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, etc.? At what point in this struggle between the freedoms of democracy and the oppression of tyranny will America say, “Enough!”

Do our enlightened leaders possess the insight and visions to see beyond today, or do they hesitate, pause or ponder in confusion until the borders of the mountain on the horizon of Ukraine become the sea escapes off Hatteras, Virginia Beach or Miami?

The writer is a former member of Richmond’s City Council, a decorated veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and author of “Cease Fire! Cease Fire! : Councilman Chuck, A Hero(in) Addiction.”