As I write this the New York Times’s front page on the web has the headline “Russian Combat Forces Have Shrunk, Pentagon Says”.
Thanks to kos, Mark Sumner and the others, regular readers of Daily Kos have known for some time that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was not just slowing: it was even starting to reverse in places. But when the New York Times echos DKos, it’s a big deal: it signals that even the mass media are starting to figure it out. Laugh all you like at the stodginess and blinkered reporting of the New York Times, but it’s a prime source of conventional wisdom for the parts of this country that are not in thrall to Trump or Putin, and it’s a big deal when the paper of record changes its tune and has headlines like this.
Although Putin’s invasion is far from over, it’s not too early to hope for it to fail and for peace to return to the valiant people of Ukraine.
UPDATE. Shortly after I wrote the above, the New York Times published “As Russia Stalls in Ukraine, Dissent Brews Over Putin’s Leadership” by Anton Troianovski and Michael Schwirtz. More, please!