Think of it as a scale. What have we put on our side, versus what have others put on their side.

To culture, good and bad are some cosmic conflict between the forces of righteousness and evil, while in nature, they are the basic biological binary of beneficial and detrimental. The 1/0 of sentience. What is good for the fox, is bad for the chicken.

This is because societies have to function as a larger organism in the broader ecosystem, so everyone has to get on the same page.

Yet while people are linear and goal oriented, nature is cyclical, circular, reciprocal and feedback generated. So we tend to chase after that carrot long past where positive feedback has turned negative.

Now ask yourself, if our society was running for a cliff, would you keep in encouraging it to run even faster, because that is the narrative and the narrative must be followed, or would you look a bit further down the road and make some effort to try telling those around you that this is a mistake?

Yes, the geostrategy is to involve Russia in another Afghanistan and break them, but how many people will die, because our culture cannot get over its World War 2 victory parades and the boost it gave our economy?

Look at all the wars since. Can any of them be considered an outright victory, in that we actually defended our country, or did anything other than spending trillions to leave some third world country a smoking ruin, with the people we opposed in control.

Anyone who actually knows any history, knows that in any other time in history, this level of geostrategic ineptitude would have those responsible taken out and shot, or some equivalent.

As Talleyrand said, "This is worse than a crime, it is a mistake."

It really is pathetic.