Before Putin's war, lots of people on the right, from Ted Cruz on down, idolized bicep-flexing Russians who were supposed to be much tougher than our supposedly pampered service members 2/

Even now you see people saying "a woke military is a weak military" — in the face of the definitely anti-woke Russian army's string of disasters . And how many times has Tucker Carlson declared that Russia is winning? 3/

You don't have to be a military expert to see that while courage and endurance are as important as ever, a modern military also needs smart people who can act on their own initiative 4/

And that recruiting people from as wide a pool as possible, and with the promise of decent treatment, is going to work better than brutalizing and hazing. But admitting that would undermine the whole RW world view 5/

So Ukraine must lose, and Russia win, to vindicate the worship of thuggishness 6/

@pkrugman very good take. Actually Zelensky threatens own russian legend about strong man, who maybe is a thug, but he takes care about things. Zelensky directly challenges this idea. Zelensky is everything Putin is not.