I used to say "Through a glass darkly," but now the glass feels almost opaque. The 4th anniversary of Putin's romp in the park will be here soon. Feb. 24. If Putin is still locked in stalemate in Donbas and shipping and infrastructure, not to mention Russia's own troops, are bleeding, sinking, and exploding - hell, Ukraine even has unmanned AI ground robots, armed with 50 caliber Brownings hunting Russian APCs at night. How do you think that affects morale?

Ukraine has redefined war. Trump and his woowoo puppy Hegseth don't even have a clue. Europe knows exactly what's up. They're retooling. They need Ukraine to hold till they're able to stand on their own 2 feet again.

I shouldn't have said the glass is opaque. Perhaps the only opacity will be seeing how long Putin can last.

And where the inevitable spiderweb of cracks gets started. Perhaps some Far Eastern province will refuse to produce next spring's quota of young men needed to be torn to bits by a 50 calibre machine gun aimed at them in the night, perhaps slithering over the edge of their trench and not even bothering to say hi.