A Louisiana senator, Bill Cassidy, put it best in a sentence: “Everything short of involving U.S. forces should be done to punish this action.”

We doubt that there will be much disagreement about that, given the determination of Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit large-scale war on the European continent once again.

Ukraine is not a U.S. ally nor member of NATO. But its freely elected government represents us, however different our two countries are.

Putin has made no secret of his imperialist ambitions. The West failed to stop him in 2014 when he first attacked Ukraine. Now, noted Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, an “unrelenting” opposition to Russia’s attack is required.

The good news is that most appear ready to rally around significant and hard-hitting sanctions against this reckless disturbance of world peace.

We shall see, of course, much political backbiting, like that of U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson from north Louisiana, whose criticism began as the first bombs fell. Johnson said, “it is clear that the Biden administration’s appeasement approach toward Russian aggression has failed.”

This from a loyal supporter of a former president who seemed to be the biggest fan of Putin in the United States.

We hope this is a small minority of Congress. America’s interests are those of the free world. In this case, we can’t know how truly hard-hitting sanctions can be, as those may take a long time to hobble Russia’s economy.

The Russian military is aiming for a quick victory. Can America and its allies be the unrelenting foes of this criminal action?