Feb. 18—An ingathering of defense secretaries, pro-war think-tankers, and a motley assembly of warmongers spent three days at the annual Munich Security Conference, attempting to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Ukraine’s rout at what is perhaps their most highly-fortified area, Avdeyevka, occurred on the opening day—but it was presented as the shame of the West for not providing enough armaments. Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy explained to the assembled that Russia had won nothing, had been weakened, and the West can now come to its senses, can repent—and send lots more money and weaponry.