... handle defeat?
I want to remind you Michael Brenner's precise diagnosis:
There was good in America and it did thrive until... it bought into own narrative. And here is a contrast.
A young marine, Hero of Russia, answering the question what did he get the highest honor the Motherland can give for, simply answers: for the love to Motherland and moving paperwork in the staff. No bravado, no chest thumping. You cannot defeat these people, as I warned for many years--these are adults because they know what they are fighting for and what price to be paid. I can only repeat, I lost the count how many times, what is being said from highest podiums to among simple people in the streets--Russia cannot be defeated on the battlefield, period. Historic Russia, certainly, lost some battles but inevitably she proved Clausewitz' dictum that the result in the war is never final better than anyone in history, because in the end, she won her wars.
Meanwhile, no matter how evil, children will be children.
I will share with you a secret of sorts--how I wish Tom Clancy was still alive.