[NathanR]

Not necessarily. However the outcome is still in doubt, 60 years in our future in 2068 (or so).

[schu]

Just making some guesses. ;-)

After rereading the article a few times, the sense I get from the traveler is one of discouragement, fatalism and loss. Not that he has given up, never, but that the war is virtually unwinable. So he makes this disparate attempt to change the past and make the pain less and the chance of winning greater.

FWIIW, schu