As the Easter Egg Roll goes on at the White House, Ukraine shows us what democracy looks like, fighting for freedom. The walk-up to war with Russia was actually 14 Aprils ago.

George W. Bush, the thank-you note is in the mail. Your deeds live long after you.

The 43rd president painting and clearing brush on his Texas ranch feels no pain or guilt over the Ukraine war and the shattering civilian casualties.

But blood is on his hands — again. The Russian war on next-door Ukraine is really Bush’s third war, because his wars in Afghanistan and Iraq worked out so well.

We recently lost the longest war in American history in Afghanistan.

Let me explain. In 2008, Bush took over the NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania. His last stand was viewed as a debacle by foreign policy experts. NATO expansion was then all the rage.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization let small countries in the club, like Albania and Latvia, promising to defend them if Russia attacked. How ridiculous.

Bush insisted the 2008 declaration state that Ukraine and Georgia “will become members of NATO.” Whoa, Nellie.

That was a fateful moment, against the better judgment of other leaders.

But warmonger Bush rammed it through.

Ukraine was nowhere near ready to join NATO, founded by Western democracies — nor is it now.

As former American ambassador Marie Yovanovitch told Congress when Donald Trump was impeached the first time, Ukraine’s corruption was far from fixed.

Bush’s brash aggression only antagonized a large nuclear nation, humiliated at the end of the Cold War. On his way out of office, Bush took the liberty, every chance to pour salt in that wound.

Of course, Bush never faced the consequences of his Bucharest swagger. He never lost a moment of his early bedtime sleep.

We see the results now, in city by city hit by the Russian army, in mass graves and fleeing families.

The Ukrainian will to hold the capital Kyiv is a valiant victory. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy won the world’s heart, playing David to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Goliath.

“And would it have been worth it, after all?” Poet T.S. Eliot and I need to know if the wreckage of war was worth it.

Belonging to NATO is a plum out of reach. Starting with Bush, leaders dangled it in front of Ukraine like forbidden fruit. Even now, NATO doesn’t want Ukraine in the club, supporting it from the sidelines.

Peace at the bargaining table might have been reached by declaring an independent, neutral Ukraine — like Finland, Russia’s neighbor to the north. Zelenskyy said he’d accept that outcome in direct talks.

This war is like our own Civil War, with common language, family ties and cultural history over a shared border. The Civil War went on for five Aprils, 1861 to 1865.

Atrocities happened when Black Union soldiers became Confederate prisoners of war. They were brutally murdered with no mercy, with the full approval of commanders like General Robert E. Lee.

Here’s a twist in Ukraine’s tragedy. Zelenskyy, a superb performance artist trained as an actor, has played to two American audiences of one.

First there was President Trump. Second, President Biden.

Trump withheld about $400 million in military aid and demanded Zelenskyy announce an “investigation” into his likely 2020 rival, Joe Biden. This defense package was congressionally approved, set to go.

But Trump needed “a favor” for nefarious, private ends on an official call with the new Ukrainian leader. As Zelenskyy promised, “We will be very serious about the case and will work on the investigation.”

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., led the House impeachment managers. He wrote in “Midnight in Washington”: “Zelensky was fully prepared …(he) would be receptive to the president’s demands to investigate the Bidens.”

The exchange was a straight-up shakedown. The news spread quickly. The House of Representatives impeached Trump in 2019. I remember it well as proof Trump corrupts all who come near.

Zelenskyy’s character is transformed with Biden, demanding an arsenal of offensive weapons for war with Russia.

The young Ukraine leader changed into a better, braver, wiser man — a servant of the people — in the fury of war.

— Jamie Stiehm is a Washington journalist and public speaker who writes a syndicated column on national politics and history