I do believe that the people who were pushing the Ukraine war were mired in the past. It is no secret that many of the elites in government and media still think of Russia as the USSR. Congressmen, politicians and media personalities all make the occasional gaffe of referring to the Russians as "the Communists".

I therefore believe that there was at least a small contingent (or maybe a large one?) who believed that the US could defeat Russia in Ukraine the same way that the US chased the Soviets out of Afghanistan.

In other words, the Ukraine conflict would be another "Charlie Wilson's War", only instead of Mujahideen armed with Stingers, it would be Neo-Nazis armed with Javelins.

I really nelioeve this was the thinking in many halls of government. Remember when it was just the Javelins that Ukraine needed? Back in 2022 it was unthinkable - off the table - to consider sending large weapons systems like Abrams tanks, Bradleys, F-16s, and so on. Biden promised that he would never send those.

But as the war ground on and Russia refused to tuck tail and scurry back across the border the way the Soviets did 36 years ago, the ante went up and up, and those red lines faded.

I actually wrote a lengthy article about how the West went stupid believing its own propaganda both about Russia and about Ukraine.

"How the West Descended Into Idiocy"

https://medium.com/@euroyankeeblog/how-the-west-descended-into-idiocy-68a8c840b123