Mormon spells out the moral of his story. The Nephites are not valiantly righteous; therefore, they are losing. Losing is proof of their unrighteousness. Such thinking does not take into account the effects of agency, but we may forgive Moroni and his chief captains for their assumptions. They have just received news about the Ammonites’ miraculous preservation and surely assumed that the same blessings were available to all. Therefore, according to this logic, losses meant that the people lacked sufficient righteousness.