Welcome to Douglas Wilson's Blog and May Blog, presented by Canon Press.

The First Casualty of War, Monday, March 7, 2022.

Introduction

The sentiment has been expressed in various ways, from escalates to Winston Churchill,

and I'm referring to the very pointed sentiment that the first casualty of war is the truth.

That said, I really like the way Samuel Johnson expressed it.

Quote, among the calamities of war, maybe jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth

by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.

Samuel Johnson, the idler.

So as we proceed, I encourage you to keep that bit of wisdom in mind.

I would also encourage you to recall that the self-evident truth of all such adages

is known to be true on a very different footing than the way you might know

whether or not a couple hundred Russian tanks have been destroyed.

Stay with me now. Why Putin has already lost?

I went back and forth in my mind about whether to build up to my conclusion

or to do what I eventually settled on, which is to start with my conclusion

and try to clear up questions afterwards.

You can see from the header which way I went.

Even though Putin's army is obviously still operational, his argument is in shambles.

By the side of the road, treads off and on fire.

His rationale looks like the tail end of Napoleon's army headed west from Moscow.

Not only so, but I don't see any path forward for him that would in any way salvage his argument.

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