redstate.com By streiff
Imagine you are a ruthless despot who miscalculated in launching an unprovoked war against a small and non-threatening neighbor, and the military operation is going pear-shaped. Not only is the military operation bleeding you to the tune of a couple of hundred men per day (Russia Releases the First Official Casualty Count From Its Ukraine Adventure), and a dozen or so countries sending large quantities of very capable weapons to the country you invaded, Western sanctions are throttling your country. More importantly, the oligarchs who keep you in power are seeing their personal balance sheets hammered. Your ability to find a way out is limited because you’ve successively upped the ante until now you need total possession of the country you attacked and the eradication of its government to claim you won. You are also grimly aware that a strongman is only a strongman as long as he wins.
What do you do?
Well, if you are Vladimir Putin, you try to gaslight the world into believing that you justifiably attacked Ukraine because they were “unfriendly” to you and that the sanctions slapped on you by governmental and private actors are irrational, unfair, and uncalled for.
