by Matt Barr

Watcher's Council results, May 5

Watcher's Council results are in:

Dymphna's fine post The Last Boat Out of Liverpool at Gates of Vienna won the Council category going away:

This post has been sitting in various places, half-written, for several weeks now. Parts of it are on my laptop; parts have been printed out and left in pieces on the coffee table. A few notes flutter out of my journal where I stuck them several weeks ago.

It would seem I’d rather not finish the post, and, at least on one level, that’s true. But another part of me aches for the remembrance then and the sense of helplessness now, as history repeats itself.

So push has come to shove: April 25th is the day set aside annually for the commemoration of the Holocaust. It is the day to remember those millions of souls who vanished into silence during the Second World War. Today the post gets written, or it gets consigned to oblivion.

Read it. I placed.

In the non-Council category, your winner was Cassandra's Can America still win wars? at Villainous Company.

But can we truly win a limited war? History shows that victory in most conflicts is more a function of sheer will than anything else, and in an open society political will is difficult to summon and almost impossible to sustain. We are fighting this war with both hands tied behind our backs. The enemy is free to spread propaganda, yet attempts to fight fire with fire are fiercely denounced by our own press corps, even when the information to be disseminated is demostrably accurate.

Our national secrets are bruited about on the front pages of major newspapers and any attempt to enforce espionage laws dating back to 1917 is branded as a partisan witch hunt. Our own politicians call for us to announce our intentions to the enemy, giving a date certain for withdrawal (as though this will not cause them to simply outwait us, handing to them on a platter what they could not win on the battlefield). That we have not learned the lessons of Viet Nam is nowhere more apparent than in our own willingness to concede victory rather than defend a principle or honor our promises.

Of a fire in a field at American Digest came in second. Nominations are posted here, and full point totals here.

If you're a blogger looking for more exposure -- who isn't! -- Watcher has a deal where he'll use host's privilege to nominate worthy posts suggested by you and your contemporaries who impress him most. There are some rules, helpfully summarized here. The deadline is 8pm Eastern each Tuesday. Check it out! Tell him New World Man referred you, it's worth two double super secret no-points in the voting.

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