A victorious Russia would not only be free to continue its extermination of Ukrainian society, but its forces would be on the Polish border, and its leadership convinced that the West lacked the will or ability to defend itself.
Be ready too, for him to surprise by doing less than expected, in the hope that the more skittish members of the Alliance peel off.
It is a litany of uncomfortable and inconvenient truths. Obsessing over these does little to spur progress.
Turn a blind eye, and every one of the other 30 Articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be breached too.
If you want societies that seek to impose virtue by force, leave the rest of us to muddled old Britain, and try Jonestown.
He may have been one of the greatest figures to shape the 20th century, but a simplistic deification risks losing the complexity of the man.
The great Parliamentarian then spoke to his colleagues from the heart. “Some Members wept,” Channon noted.
We lost Putney, but gained loads of poorer seats in the north and midlands. That’s highlighted the tensions.
It is straining to be bigger and better, and see further, faster. But the lesson of the story is that it can’t see everywhere at once.
Most voters will have what to them are more pressing reasons to reject Corbyn than anti-semitism. But none expose more fully why he must be stopped.
What he detests is less liberalism than democracy, and the obstacle it poses to Russian foreign policy objectives.
As long as traditional Labour voters stick with the party, opportunities for the Independent Group will be limited.
For how much longer can Ministers continue to try to defend a relationship which has become increasingly indefensible?
The situation will fester, which will pose major challenges for statecraft, and for the stability both of Ukraine and of surrounding areas.