New Cold War with a new axis of evil: Isolationists in the US, GOP must join the fight as dark forces gather

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s great epic, “The Lord of the Rings,” it becomes apparent only gradually that the forces of darkness have united.

Sauron, with his baleful all-seeing eye, emerges as the leader of a vast axis of evil: the Black Riders, the corrupted wizard Saruman, the subhuman orcs, the malignant courtier Wormtongue, the giant venomous spider Shelob — they are all in it together, and Mordor is their headquarters.

Tolkien knew whereof he wrote. A veteran of World War I, he watched with dismay the approach of a second great conflagration.

Sipping pints of bitter and puffing his pipe in “The Shire” — his idealized Middle England — he could only shudder as Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and imperialist Japan came together to form their Axis in 1936-37, and mutter, “I told you so,” when Hitler and Stalin joined forces in 1939.

We, too, are witnessing the formation of an Axis.

I was reminded of Tolkien by a post from the conservative broadcaster Mark R. Levin: “Appeasement is escalation. Our enemies are on the move. Our allies are being encircled and attacked or soon attacked. . . . Conservatism and MAGA are not about isolationism or pacifism. . . . It is up to us, patriotic Americans, to step into the breach and get this done now.”