The US Congress supports trying Putin for war crimes. That is what he deserves — but so do some American politicians.

This is an instance of hypocrisy: the US supports doing justice in one case and opposes it in another similar case. In the Putin case, the US stance is correct — in the Dubya case, the US stance is wrong.

There are people who would argue that this hypocrisy is a reason not to punish Putin. That is misguided reasoning. The proper response to hypocrisy is to change the conduct in the case where it is wrong (US war criminals), not to change it in the case where it is right (Putin).

I support trying and punishing Putin, all else being equal. But I think we may end up in a situation where a just peace (Putin relinquishes the territory and Ukrainians that the Putin forces have seized, and ends the fighting) is possible but only in exchange for not trying to cature and try Putin. If this happens, I say we should take that deal.