It's a confusing mix of national, regional, (European)interests, and personal power_trips/grift. Steady relationships have become subject to day to day transactional whims and sword rattling.<p>Two things stand out. First: The US cyber and military defense have been savaged and purged of loyal and expert people, practically begging an attack.<p>Second: WWIII has been going on for a while in the cyber realm, with major infrastructure here hacked, constant takeovers and ransoms paid, rehearsals of grid takedowns arguably in Europe and Bali (YMMV on this), billions in crypto stolen and recovered. Plus a ton of classified stuff we don't know about.<p>And with two chummy wannabe dictators, you never know if we are defending from Russia or leaving the barn door open.