Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's goes on Tucker Carlson and says, 'I love Jesus Christ'

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31. For some people, "anti-war" is categorical.

That is, you cannot support ANY war. Total commitment to non-violence.

I had that phase as a youngster. Roughly in the same time frame (but not the exact same time) as my (very) brief interest in libertarianism after reading Atlas Shrugged (yes, cliche I know, but the predictability is real).

Then, as with the policies of libertarianism, I looked at the bigger picture and gamed out "okay what does this mean?" (also when I studied philosophy and ethics in college)

My conclusion was that I do NOT believe in a total commitment to non-violence in every situation. Because then you give awful people free reign to victimize others. Total non-violence assumes that all victimizers have a functioning conscience. In my several decades, I have found this is, sadly, not a good assumption.

Non-violence is appropriate - and possibly the most effective tool (think Gandhi and India breaking away from Britain) in many situations, but not always. As in the situation with Ukraine and Russia, Ukraine has the right to defend itself. Israel and Palestinians both have the right to defend themselves - ah but there we get into the question of "what is ethically allowable in defense of a nation?" I am quite sure rape, torture, and deliberate murder of innocents is NOT ethical. Sadly, most nations have soldiers, and sometimes leaders, who cross that line over and over. The violation of the ethics of self-defense does not take away the right to the nation's self-defense, but it sure does reduce the righteousness of it.

Back to the OP, I wish Ben Cohen and others who are stuck on step 1 of the ethics journey, would take the next step. It is unconscionable to just hand over Ukraine or America to Putin's Russia, as it would have been to hand over Europe to Hitler.