"Russia won't last integer t time; they've only got integer s soldiers, they've lost integer m machines, they've spent integer p political will"

They genuinely believe this. The possibility that we might have misjudged the situation does not exist, they literally could not think it. The US economy is running on the last fumes of zero-percent interest still left in the tank, our logistics network is being bled for profit by its owners, and everyday people are quietly watching their grocery budget leap into the stratosphere. Fuck.

They talk so much of Putin's madness -- "the brute has no strategy, he's a bloodthirsty tyrant!" You want strategy? Russia's biggest adversary ends the longest standing battlefront of the 21st century, brings troops home and gives its weapon merchants an uncertain future. Why, that's nearly the starting criteria for reorienting an economy -- for actually addressing problems at home. Of course, nobody in the US government actually wants to do that. So what do you do? Give them an opportunity to slide back into old habits. Afghanistan is closed, so give the American Empire a busy-box to spin their wheels in; let the last gust of momentum clatter through the machine on your terms, on the stage you choose. That's the logic of this invasion.