The Defense Department has been clear about its US foreign policy agenda vis a vis Russia, as discussed here in a 2019 Rand Corp paper, and repeated in the media by people on all sides who take this agenda as fact.  Overextending and unbalancing Russia is the rationale for the US proxy war in Ukraine, for the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines, for the unprecedented economic sanctions and financial seizures of Russian assets by western governments, for the CIA instigated color revolutions in Eurasia, and the US naval and extensive US military occupation throughout the world.  All acts – hypocritical, terroristic, offensive and dishonorable – are justified under this program.  For the elites running the US capital, it's what war looks like.  They have never fought in one, but from what they have read in books and screenplays, this makes sense to them.

"Our leaders" appear to believe in this agenda.  It also fits with WEF centralization, maintains the western elite status quo, supports the MICIMATT, and seeks to expand global commodity exploitation by western capitals.

As this information is public, you don't need to be a PhD or an intel weenie to figure it out.  But what if the US is the one being played, and not the other way around?

I was asked the other day by RT if the US can afford to keep sustaining Ukraine's defense and pay for Zelensky's fantasies on an annual basis – given that the USG is on track to spend twice as much ($91 Billion) as we spent in Afghanistan per year, and funding the Ukrainian military at a level that is 33% higher than the entire Russian annual military budget?  I answered, "Of course we can't!"