> Then I knew, in almost a secular epiphany. We had already been defeated and occupied, left and right alike (no nit-picking on terminology, please, I have no time for that now), assailed by forces within and without – that war is over. I had been trying to stave off a defeat that had already happened. We needed desperately to understand how that had happened to us particularly, and to the West generally, then settle down to considering how badly we can bloody our enemies. After all, as a quasi-historical Roman general is supposed to have said on the eve of the defeat and destruction of his Legion, “This will cost them more than they realize. We shall not have lost altogether.” Very well said.