Are the wars for real?
Yes there are real wars, wars which are waged to occupy a piece of land which is of some use. A stronger country generally gets greedy due to the strength it has as per certain self evaluation and focusses its energy in gaining intel about another country which has some useful land considered to be a bit weaker. In this scenario the piece of land the stronger country wants to acquire is for sure filled with minerals or fuel or natural beauty, no country is stupid enough to fight for a piece of Sahara. Colonies were made by British, the French etc, tribes have fought to own a piece of earth and call it as their own all the way from arctic by the Vikings to the rebels of Africa and all the way down to Antarctica, but no one wants the Sahara, they let that land dry up on its own, what a sacrifice!! isnt it?
India fights with Pakistan or vice-versa for a piece of Kashmir, Israelis fight with the Palestinians for a strip of land, Syrians and the Africans fight amongst themselves to govern their own land in different styles (priority to certain people because they probably look a bit fairer than the other, eat something different than the other or call the same god by a different name). In all these examples and Im sure we have a lot more, the reason for war is gaining control of land or people to benefit economically or forcefully influence people to follow a certain cult (again, follow the same god with a different name or restrict someone from eating certain kind of meat or plant. Funny its generally meat and not much of restrictions the religion puts on plant consumption...wow our gods were nice to vegetarians).
New age war, this is more commercial rather than geographical - profitable land / cultural - behaviour and practices / political - democratic or Communist / religious - catholic or Shia. Take an example of COVID, if we want to consider it as a war, well why not? We blamed countries, economic down turn, job losses, people died, medical system went on an overdrive, life style changes, some got richer and some got poorer, news channels had something to fill-up their air time, UN got involved, UN was blamed, supplies were hit, people movement was restricted, really tell me in what way it’s not a war except for usage of weapons. This war was or is totally commercial, nobody lost any land, religion never came into picture, race dint matter, but one industry (for example travel and hospitality) got hit quite badly and other industry (online shopping and transport) got all the additional business. It’s a commercial war. Let’s come to the Ukraine and Russia war, is it also commercial? Did the oligarchs of Ukraine walk up to the oligarchs of Russia and tell them to attack Ukraine so a bit of prominence is given to them which could support future developments. When Russia is done with its so called attack, bombing a few buildings, March the army through the streets, terrorise the helpless etc, walk back, install a pro Russian government or convert the present government into a pro Russian government, increase tourism calling it safe to return and showcase all the rubbles as interesting spots to view and listen to stories of people who really lost something while one sips on a strong coffee. Restructure their economy, displace people to decrease the country’s average age, bring in the world focus on Ukrainian products so they get sold better, all at the cost of present generation common people to give the future generation common people a better life.
Well Russia’s investment in all this, I mean they are investing / spending their reputation, sanctions do cost them, a lot will be paid back in full when Ukraine becomes another tool in the Russian machinery post pullback of their troops. When Ukraine gets friendly after the pull back of Russian troops, who actually would benefit from the sanctions, technically no one, so the sanctions would be lifted slowly and the Russian oligarchs start merging their business interests with ukrainischen oligarchs to build a bigger empire. News channels would diversify and launch travel / culture channels, retailers would launch “travel Ukraine / save Ukraine / buy Ukraine” variants for a small increase in price and of course 10% of the earnings would go to a “special fund”.
In all this, common people are the ones who pay, struggle, go through hardships so they support the rich and powerful who can in turn enrich lives of the common people through new business ventures.