I think they are hoping for Putin and the political regime to collapse. It isn't going to happen.
The only realistic way to end this
is for NATO to start bombing Russian positions in Ukraine. It is how we ended the Kosovo war in 1999. This would be on a scale we have never seen since WW2. Yeah, we are going to lose planes and pilots. They have serious air defences. Your little A10s that every cowboy gets their dick hard on Youtube about are worthless.
Everyone wants this big badass military but never wants to use it for anything. Since Vietnam, Ukraine has been the biggest testing ground for weaponry against a real power!
This conflict has proven a lot of good things for us: the power of drone tech. Tanks aren't dead. Cesar's artillery is really badass. We need to be able to produce lots more 122MM shells on a grand scale. That is why we are expanding our capacity to three times what it is now.
A huge percentage of this bill is getting spent right here in the US of A building stuff. People need to stop crying. They just don't like it because the big orange man doesn't get to act like a badass killing Russians.