we are speaking politicians who make a habit of bluster and liking "shows of force" and are openly contemptful of the lives of those who don't agree or look like them

some of them believe that it is their religious duty to start this war and make it heinous enough to start ww3 and bring forth the return of jesus christ

I think you are ascribing a level of systems thinking and care about consequences which one cannot simply assume is there

if you were to, say, start with an assumption that some of the actors have the mental patterns and world model of an angsty, self-centered teenager, or younger, then you might draw different conclusions