We need to be very careful not to substitute wishful thinking for real-world facts. No matter how it is dressed up, Ukraine has lost significant ground in the last few days and retreats, no matter how well marketed, are never good in the long run. The West continues to fail abysmally in providing the necessary heavy weapons systems that would let Ukraine compensate for Putin's ability to throw limitless numbers of bodies into the fray, thus soaking up Ukrainian materiel. Unfortunately, the stupid triumphalist narratives favored by sensation-mongering Western journalists enable our "leaders" to remain in idle, convinced that no greater effort is required because Russia's defeat is "inevitable."

In reality, Ukraine is far more likely to be defeated given our current milquetoast support. 50 Bradley fighting vehicles is pathetically inadequate, as is all NATO support so far. Russia can only win if the war is a war of attrition, and we in the West have done everything to ensure that this is indeed the nature of the war being fought. Our pusillanimity is leading Ukraine toward defeat even though Russian forces are pathetically inadequate. We seem incapable of grasping that when Russia has near-infinite bodies to throw into the combat merely in order to soak up Ukrainian ammunition, our posture of always too little, too late, guarantees eventual Russian victory.