Final Word from Wednesday, August 26, 2026

The West no longer wins its wars, but it always finds moral reasons to justify the death and destruction on the path to inevitable defeat. The vogue now is to thank Ukrainians for taking the death and destruction on themselves by shielding us from the advancement of Putinism. In the 1950s, 60s and 70s it was Communism that threatened to cascade through Southeast Asia. As the Oscar-winning documentary Hearts and Minds from 1974 shows, people who initially throw their full support behind such crusades often come to regret it when victory proves elusive. Pres. Petr Pavel told Czech ambassadors at the Castle yesterday that there is only one Czech foreign policy and that the country must be "transparent from the outside, predictable, and capable of delivering on its promises." It was in effect a recruitment speech for his own opposition foreign policy, which is grounded in the belief that the West can still win its wars if it merely delivers a few more missiles or interceptors. Pavel was trying to capture the hearts and minds of Czech diplomats, but the tide has apparently already turned, and a single Czech foreign policy - not his own - does indeed prevail. [ Vladimir Putin Russia domino theory ]