The intention was to involve Russia in another Afghanistan and it has played out as planned. As the joke was prior to the war, the West wants a war with Russia to the last Ukrainian.

Remember though that in Afghanistan, we armed the Mujahideen and sent in Bin Ladin as an advisor. It caused considerable blowback. What will be the blowback this time, besides the economic meltdown?

What if the Ukrainians wise up to the fact they were always going to be bear bait and turn some of that anger west?

There are already a fair number of refugees from all our other imperial adventures all over Europe. What if those trainloads of weapons start trickling back? Say the gangs on the outskirts of London and Paris start finding RPG's and machine guns on the local black markets? The tactical vests of the police and armored cars of the rich might become vulnerable to all that anger.