Russia and Ukraine

[Belacqua]

They sincerely believe to be doing everything so right and nothing goes right and they just don’t get it.

This seems like a fair description of US military policy in the last few decades. 

With the exception of some realist cynics at the very top, most military people probably believe that what they are doing is right. Yet the results seem not to bear that out. Look at our great success in Afghanistan, for example. 

For people who still sincerely hold to the faith that the US brings democracy and freedom to other countries, it certainly does appear that "nothing goes right." 

For the people who actually make the decisions, however, there are probably different plans in place. For them, two outcomes are acceptable: 

1) the leaders of a country become obedient to US demands and let us control their economy, or

2) the country is thrown into chaos, the economy goes to shambles, and there is no possibility of that country challenging US hegemony in any way. 

Examples of the second goal include Libya, for example. 

Option number one is possible if Ukraine manages to come out of the war without being nuked to ashes. In that case it will certainly be under a crushing debt burden. This is the way the IMF, the World Bank, and the US like it. Managing the debt means austerity for the Ukrainian people, and forced privatization of their industry (which means that the profits go to international corporations, not Ukrainians). 

Option number two is always a possibility, if the US continues to refuse negotiations. The US government currently seems willing to fight the war until the last Ukrainian is dead. A strange sort of victory, but it achieves US foreign policy goals.