The economic sanctions and boycotts directed at Putin’s Russia have been and will continue to be a complete failure. They may cause an economic slowdown in Russia, even a significant one. Aeroflot may stop flying outside the country. The French may seize the oligarchs’ floating brothels disguised as yachts, and Putin’s mistresses may miss their latest designer gowns from the Paris fashion shows. At the corner grocery store in Moscow, the shelves may be more even bare than usual. The sanctions will be “successful” only in that way. But these sanctions will not stop one bullet from being fired in Ukraine or prevent another kilometer of Ukrainian territory from being seized. That’s all that counts and, in that way, these sanctions are and will be a total failure.

But there is a way to turn the Russian invasion around in seven days. In less than a week, we could send Putin’s platoons back down the muddy roads to Russia, licking their wounds as they go. It will not necessitate American boots on the ground. And if Mr. Putin objects, it’s simply a technique he and his predecessors perfected over the years.

In 1939, the world faced a power-hungry, territory-taking gangster-dictator just as we do now. The United States wanted to help Great Britain fight Hitler, but our misguided neutrality laws forbade it. So, President Roosevelt found a way around that law by “trading” 50 old American destroyers in exchange for the American Navy’s use of the port of Bermuda. It was called the “Lend-Lease” program. The American destroyers, crewed by Brits, with a few American “consultants” on board, helped break the back of Hitler’s U-boat flotillas.

After Hitler invaded Russia in June 1941, long before the United States was officially in the war, we supplied Stalin with the equipment Russia needed to fight the German onslaught. Rather than claiming we were lending the tanks, guns, and planes to Russia, we freely admitted they were gifts. In the final tally, we sent Russia almost 425,000 jeeps and trucks, 14,000 airplanes, and 13,000 tanks. Much of it came to Mother Russia’s rescue before Pearl Harbor.

So, there’s no doubt Russia accepts the precedent of accepting military aid from a noncombatant country. But knowing it is more blessed to give than receive, they reversed the concept in the 1960s. North Vietnamese pilots flew Russian airplanes to shoot down American airmen. Russian missiles were shot at those who were not shot down by Russian aircraft. Russia gave the North Vietnamese thousands of artillery pieces and tanks, millions of rounds of ammunition, and virtually everything else the North Vietnamese requested. The bayonet on the end of the AK-47 that penetrated my knee was undoubtedly made by “the happy workers at Kalashnikov Commune #43” or some similar Russian factory.

The practice continues in the Middle East today. The Russians actively arm the Iranians, the PLO and their Hamas brothers, and the Houthi rebels trying to close the southern end of the Suez Canal. We recently intercepted an ocean-going ship packed with the latest Russian weapons from bow to stern, keel to mast.

After seeing America’s army and its honor abandoned in Kabul, many American senior military officers are willing to share their dissatisfaction and ideas for defeating Putin’s army.

The concept is straightforward. We employ the same technique Russia accepted and used for decades. But in this case, the weapon we supply to the Ukrainians can make any Russian offensive untenable. Officially it’s the M39A1 missile. It’s known to the troops as the B-BAM. The two Bs stand for Big and Bad, and the M equals Missile. I’ll let you figure out the A.