It is said that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. So it was last week when America ran out of ideas for helping the suffering souls in Ukraine. 

It was then that Sen. Lindsey Graham broke the brain freeze by calling for the assassination of Vladimir Putin. 

“Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military?” the South Carolina Republican tweeted, referring to Julius Caesar’s assassin and a German officer who tried to kill Hitler. “The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out. You would be doing your country — and the world — a great service.” 

His thought, which he repeated several times, is almost certainly a common one around the world, but it was a no-no for a top government official to say it out loud, which is why the White House, the Kremlin and both Democrats and Republicans rebuked him. After all, encouraging assassinations is the sort of thing that can quickly get out of hand. 

Yet the heated attention Graham attracted highlighted something else, too. Namely, that although the White House and NATO are thoroughly disgusted by the wanton slaughter of innocents and the destruction of a modern European nation by a savage invader, they’re also willing to let it happen. 

Fatal flaw in sanctions 

The proof is that not a single idea advanced by the West, from bank sanctions to sending Ukraine some defense weapons to seizing the yachts of Russian oligarchs, has one chance in a thousand of stopping Putin’s war machine. The efforts may prolong the fighting but won’t change the outcome. 

Because both Europe and the United States are addicted to Russian oil, the sanctions steered clear of Mad Vlad’s energy business, a compromise that guts the ostensible aim of making it too painful for him to continue. 

In effect, those calling for an end to the war are also financing its continuation. 

Meanwhile, the one consistent Ukrainian request, made both by their Churchillian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and stricken ordinary citizens interviewed on TV, is for a no-fly zone to neutralize Putin’s air superiority. So far, the answer is no because of fears the move would lead to unintended combat with Russia and result in World War III. 

The rejection is understandable, especially after Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons if anyone interferes in his slaughterhouse. He was even more specific Saturday, saying any country participating in a no-fly zone was participating in the war itself. 

Get the latest updates in the Russia-Ukraine conflict with The Post’s live coverage.

But the compelling logic of the White House and NATO in trying to avoid direct conflict with Russia underscores the predicament. If they won’t do a no-fly zone, what will they do to stop the massacre? 

“Nothing” is not an acceptable answer politically, so President Biden and his European counterparts keep piling on more sanctions and holding more meetings with each other to make it look as if they’re doing more than they actually are. 

Think about that the next time authorities seize another oligarch’s massive yacht. Do they really expect us to believe Putin will cancel the war because one of his cronies lost an expensive toy? More to the point, do the authorities believe it themselves? 

Naturally, the left-wing media took the bait and ran with it. The New York Times cheered on Saturday’s front page with a story headlined “How the West Marshaled a Stunning Show of Unity Against Russia.” It went on to declare that “the West threw out the playbook it used for decades against the Kremlin and isolated Russia with unparalleled sanctions and penalties.” 

Politico played along, too, by asking whether Biden’s Ukraine policy would give him a “bounce” in poll numbers. 

All this happy talk strikes me as grossly premature and beside the point. If ever there was a binary issue, this is it. 

Russia or Ukraine — only one can win. 

If Putin is stopped, Biden will deserve credit. But, and this seems far more likely, Putin will not stop until he controls the whole country and kills as many Ukrainians as he believes necessary, including civilians and children. 

And unless the plucky but massively outgunned defenders pull off one of the great military upsets of all time, he will triumph because no other nation or group of nations with the ability to stop him had the will. 

In that case, would the Times fault Biden and admit the “stunning show of unity” didn’t matter? Ha! 

No twisting out of this 

One other point about the early praise: The finale will be televised, which makes it impossible to spin the results or even attempt to explain them away. 

The heat that political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic are feeling now will be child’s play compared to the public fury if Putin slaughters his way to total victory. 

Try to imagine press secretary Jen Psaki or Biden himself explain why there was nothing more that could have been done as the world spent weeks witnessing women and children, along with Ukrainian combatants, shot down, blown up and ground into dust by Russian planes, tanks and rockets. 

Neither will the pols be able to explain away the exodus-level of refugees, or why they didn’t help until people managed to get themselves to Ukraine’s borders and cross into Poland, for example. 

Answers also will be needed, including from Republicans, for the early dithering as Putin massed 200,000 troops and his arsenal on the border. Recall that the White House gave conflicting signals about whether the first round of sanctions it was drawing up were designed to be deterrents or not, and in the end they were insufficient anyway. 

In a Saturday Zoom call with American lawmakers, Zelensky reportedly blasted the US for the early delay by saying, “If you had started sanctions months ago, there would not have been war.” 

Par for the course with Biden, events moved faster than he did. It didn’t help that he refused to let the growing crisis interrupt his frequent weekend trips home to Delaware. What does he do there? 

A’stan all over again 

Finally, the president entered this showdown with the disaster of Afghanistan hanging over him. He was determined to get all troops out and refused to heed the military’s warning that his plan was reckless and would result in a Taliban takeover. 

He did it his way, and 13 service members lost their lives in a suicide blast that seriously wounded scores of others. The military equipment left behind made the Taliban one of the most lethal armies in the region and filled their coffers as they sold the excess on the black market. And, despite his promises, Biden left behind thousands of loyal allies. 

It’s not a coincidence that Putin made his move against Ukraine soon after the Afghanistan debacle. If he succeeds, Biden’s record on the world stage will be 0-2, and there won’t be any doubts about who lost Ukraine.