The Sunday talk shows have been awash with Congressmen, military spokespersons and other notables declaring the need for coalition partners before bombing the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS), or before supporting Ukraine's military against Russia.

The pundits say we first need partners like Germany and the U.K. Other partners are hard to identify in the Middle East, maybe the Free Syrians if we can find them, but certainly not the evil government of Syria's President Assad, even though it, too, is at war against ISIS; the enemy of our enemy in this case is still our enemy, apparently.

Of course, NATO would be our obvious partner in Europe to support Ukraine. Reluctance on the part of the major member countries, however, especially Germany (with close and important trade ties to Russia), will require much time to work out. Delays before taking military actions are mother's milk to President Barrack Obama.

Meanwhile, we could move unilaterally and immediately with the following two tested, significant, and passionately-invested forces to counter the evil empires of ISIS and revanchist Russia before they have time to consolidate their military gains: Ukraine and the Kurds of northern Iraq.

The latter is not yet a sovereign country but is operating largely autonomously of the pathetic and unsympathetic leadership in Baghdad (mostly Shiite, but now, since the resignation of Iraq's shiite Prime Minister Maliki, making room for some Sunni's opposed to ISIS.) The Peshmerga, armed fighters of the Kurds, number more than 300,000. They supported the United States during the wars against Saddam Hussein. We have close intelligence ties with the Kurds. They are ethnically diverse and politically inclusive. They oppose the Shiites of Iran and the Sunni extremists of ISIS. The 26 million Kurds, with American diplomatic will and military aid, could become our country's staunchest and most reliable ally in the Middle East.

Kurdistan is a predominantly Muslim country, willing to oppose Muslim extremists. Turkey would be opposed initially, but with well-directed U.S. diplomacy, including, possibly, renewed support of Turkey's long-pending application for EU membership, the Turks might see a U.S.-Kurd relationship as by far the lessor of a growing number of evils in the region.

Ukraine is an important U.S. ally just waiting to happen. We and the other NATO allies have never ventured far with this relationship for fear of Russian resentment and retaliation. Russia's blatant invasion of Ukraine renders such fears moot, however.

How quickly we have forgotten the forced annexation of Crimea and the thousands of Ukrainian and Tatar refugees now forced from the Crimea into Ukraine's interior, just a few months ago.

President Clinton's secretary of defense, Bill Perry, has recently reminded us of the joint NATO-Ukraine maneuvers during the mid-1990s in preparation for a Ukraine-NATO partnership. We need to be reminded also of the solemn treaty of Budapest in 1994, between Russia and Ukraine, when Ukraine agreed to give up all of its nuclear weapons (it was, at the time, the world's 4th largest nuclear power) in exchange for a guarantee from Russia that it would respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

Russians speak of Ukrainians as poor country cousins, but family, nonetheless. But Russia violated another mutual defense pact with Ukraine in the 1600s (the 1654 Treaty of Periaslov), which violation has led to more than 300 years of domination over, and massive atrocities by Russia against, Ukraine; for Ukrainians, they've had enough and many are willing to die to achieve real independence.

Ukrainians now recognize they obtained their freedom too easily when the USSR collapsed in 1991 and that now they must fight for it, even if it means killing Russians. The Ukrainian military is strong, not strong enough to hold off full Russian military might, but enough to make the task of trying to take over Ukraine extremely unpleasant for Russia, enough so that it might back off completely.

Until now, the Russian takeover has been a cakewalk to such a degree that President Vladimir Putin has his eyes on Moldova and one or two of the Baltic nations which, finally, would be an assault against NATO proper. But who would challenge Russia, other than the Lithuanians, who would fight to the death.

The United States should enter into strong, comprehensive alliances with the Kurds and Ukrainians, and arm and train both to fight against our mutual adversaries. They are both friends with whom we have common enemies.

The time is ripe, almost over-ripe.

Richard H. Shriver lives in Old Lyme. He served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense during the Ford administration and as assistant secretary of the Treasury during the Reagan administration. He and his wife lived in the Soviet Union and Ukraine for 8 years.