The idea of comparing Volodymyr Zelensky to Jefferson Davis is a provocative one. Try to imagine what either man would make of the parallel, if it could be explained to him, and it’s hard to think of either one finding it flattering. Certainly Zelensky’s liberal American cheerleaders would be scandalized to hear their hero compared to a Confederate. 

Yet the comparison is apt. There was only ever one way the South could have won the war over secession, and that was if it were a short one. Once the conflict settled into a yearslong grind, the structural advantages of the North were bound to be decisive. It had more men, more money, and more industry.