Hot wars are won through greater brutality against the brutal. WW2 was won with brutality, ingenuity and resolve. Bombing and nuking civilians is brutality but the only other choice was to be brutalized ourselves.
The Cold War was stopped in its tracks due to the threat of the greatest brutality imaginable. It was ‘won’ for now due to the slow collapse of a flawed economic system. The same people are still there and their new economic position is rapidly giving them more capability.
Even free people must be brutal at times to defend themselves. Or at least show that they are capable as in the Cold War.
Resolve in my case means doing what is necessary to win. It must allow to be Brutal if that is what is necessary to defeat Evil.
But it is not diametrically opposed to Compassion either. How we treated our enemies, and our own was a good counterpoint to the Soviets, and the Axis.
It is the strength of the Judeo-Christian foundations of Western Civilization, where even the “least” of us can make some of the greatest contributions to society.
For instance, what would the Chinese have done with Stephen Hawking?