One reason why Russia and China are so opposed to this war, besides economic interests, is the amount of live experience the US military has gotten.

In the past 15 years, our military has engaged in 2 major wars and atleast 2 targetted ones, Gulf Wars I & II and Kosovo & Afghanistan. There is no substitute for actual battle experience and testing. It is one thing to develop patriot missiles and they work perfectly in tests, but it is another thing to actually see how they operate in real live conditions. The US has had the opportunity to deploy its military and move massive divisions and coordinate air, land, and sea attacks. All this experience is indispensible in developing military capabilities.

While it is clear that Russia and China are no match for the US militarily, they consider themselves the most formidable foes. But since we are getting much more battle tested and as a result identify problems and can address them tactically, strategically and technologically, it really places them at a further distance in our rear view mirror.

The other point is that much of our experience has been against soviet made technology and we have thus amassed sufficient competence in countering it and anticipated advances. This cannot sit well with the Russians and Chinese, who I think have a lot of Soviet based technology. The truth is that Russia and especially China, scare the heck out of me, especially since China walks about with the hugest chip on its shoulder that we have ever seen in modern history. China, it seems, would not hesitate to got to war with us even if they know we would kick their butts eventually. However, with the current experiences, hopefully our military is growing in capabilities and experience by leaps and bounds.

I guess I am something of a war hawk, I believe that human beings respond primarily to force and one must not hesitate to use it when called for. Lives lost in war are precious but often far more lives are lost if wars are not fought.