The costs of expanding the alliance outweigh the benefits.

Wankers. These people did the same with Iraq. Did millions of Ukrainians and hundreds of thousands of Russians need to suffer for them to realise this? (Not to mention the European version of ISIS that's heading this way and all the turmoil that's going to cause right at the time the world needs to be focused on climate action.) Would it be too much to ask for journalists to use their thin reasoning skills before they encourage the MIC to let loose with it's brutality? Absolute fuckheads.

Hopefully some of the 'journalists' who supported this war never sleep soundly again in their lives, haunted every night by the misery they facilitated.

They fucked up Ukraine for like a 0.0001% chance at hurting Russia. They don't care for their own people, why would they give a shit about some ukrainians who they were probably making racist jokes about like a day prior to Feb 2022.

I don't see anything to suggest this isn't infighting from the pro-war on China camp

I'm not entirely convinced this isn't a propaganda push to convince Russia they're sincere about this when they're not.

People might raise how these ghouls openly discuss their inner thoughts and plans in these kinds of publications and true enough but for the past 30 years America hasn't had a peer power rival much less one they're in a hot proxy war with which they're not winning so they've been content saying the truth because what are the Jihadist (former) pawns of the US going to do about it? What is Iraq and Saddam going to do about it or Libya, etc. Russia on the other hand things are not going according to wishes though they haven't gone totally south either. Did they ever expect Ukraine to win? Was the whole goal a quagmire in the vein of Afghanistan in the 80s for the Soviets? Was it just an exercise in purging old weapons and stimulating arms manufacturers in order to fill the reserves with the new stuff for China and get money out to the manufacturers to get the lines hot and ready for that conflict? Was it multiples of these?

US has not and will not take its eyes off subjugating Russia but that doesn't mean this whole thing couldn't have been mainly for the purposes of expanding NATO, generating obedience and solidarity among their pet politicians in Europe and elsewhere, doing a test check on civilian populations for their obedience to the propaganda and willingness to endure hardships in the name of liberal democracy, and overall readying the populations, alliance itself, and arms of said alliance for a planned coming conflict with China in say 3 years?

The US knows Russia is somewhat well managed compared to many of their enemies, has solid counter-intelligence capabilities and is a difficult, strong nut to crack. They also know they pay attention to these kinds of publications and words and maybe take actions based on them. They could be saying this as a lie arranged behind the scenes among these people to fool the Russians into accepting another false peace like Minsk Accords. They allow them the Eastern territories they annexed plus Crimea but without real recognition or legalizing it, they agree to cease hostilities and pinky promise they totally never really intended to bring them into NATO anyways or that it will be a long, long road (with a behind doors wink to Russia). Russia pulls back its troops, demobilizes entirely, then like a year later out of nowhere Ukraine has been fast-tracked into NATO with a quick vote and suspension of any rules preventing it all of a sudden. NATO forces roll in a month after the announcement of intent and weeks after signing and set up on the Eastern border of the Ukrainian rump-state with their weapons, radars and nukes not far behind. Maybe they stage a provocation to get into a hot war with Russia to retake Crimea and the lost territories while disciplining and humiliating Russia (or maybe getting us all nuked for their troubles in planning such), maybe they just sit there and hope for a chance at a good decapitating strike on the Russian government to throw it into chaos if they ever get a pawn into a highly placed military position inside Russia.

All I can really say is with all the deception going on with this war and the fact that it is the industrial, war-complex-industrial bourgeoisie not the finance ones who hold the ears of the generals and political administration, a sign of a split does not mean any change in behavior. Nordstream was deception, Minsk accords were deception. US has admitted they lied about China helping Russia and had the press print it to try and dissuade China from doing that. They have openly admitted to media manipulation for the cause of the moment so everything has a huge question mark over it.

I mean, didn't NATO always know this? It's clear that provoking Russia was the goal, not an unintended consequence.