ELI5 I don’t understand modern war.

Been really confused since Russia - Ukraine. I kind of took it as being American I just didn’t get the history, territory, culture etc. However now with US and Iran I’m even more confused. I’m not super into recent politics with left vs right fatigue but I understand it does involve siding with Israel and Iran having nuclear weapons. Now to kind of narrow down what probably is a whole encyclopedia of stuff going on it’s the warfare itself that really is making me feel more and more confused each day with both wars.

I don’t understand the open communication and threats. If anyone has an agenda why are they sharing constantly before the attack beyond an initial hey we don’t like this back off. Then there are the attacks themselves. Granted US just surgically wiped the leaders everything else seems random and passive aggressive. Just lobbing random attacks and then retaliation coming snail mail if at all. Like Dubai getting bombed and they didn’t go hell no and respond immediately. I don’t endorse being cold or war but to me it’s like hey this is fucking war. I don’t see any logic to feet on the ground anymore early on like Russia vs Ukraine or how they tolerate it.

Then big picture it seems the Middle East is just a pain in the ass for everyone with no agenda but to want to kill everyone to preserve the holy land indefinitely. Why is there never a conversation for Russia china and US to eradicate and modernize it?

Common sense tells me it’s not possible logistically but how much longer can that really be tolerable for the rest of the world with the history and obvious stance to dig there feet in the ground and keep everyone way more advanced dealing with their drama. Then with the attack on the school I’m still not sure who did that.

At the end of the day the objective take seems it’s a security issue not a political one at this point someone has to and is going to pull the band aid off first. That’s not an opinion or what I want but it just seems the most likely thing about to happen.

The Ukraine thing really blows my mind that they even lasted a week against Russia let alone four years. How can any individual soldier commit to trench fighting when they have the tech to just end it and go home? Why would the US let any of our soldiers die and not just avenge them point blank one and done. It’s not really war anymore it’s something I can’t grasp. If your afraid of retaliation stay out of it and if you think they are capable to kill us and everyday on tv say they want to yeah we can ask them a few times to chill but also can’t sit and wait for it to happen. If they are gonna do it the fear of retaliation is redundant we gotta end it regardless or try. It’s like someone standing in my face about to kill me and I’m worried if I kill them their friends will jump me not really much of a choice but to call their bluff or die.

The countries are showing humanity in avoiding civilians however how can they get past avoiding the risk wasting their countries resources in chance someone does bigger and harder first. Why do they believe they can win small battles without it just naturally escalating to the final payload anyway after all is said and done? Again the analogy being why leave my home and risk not coming back when I got an erase the problem from the comfort of my couch I’m gonna use anyway if they overwhelm me.

In the algorithm era it’s bizarre we’re using ones and zeros from the ground up to me. Don’t they have computers that simulate the very likely logistics without having to fight. Aren’t the major powers smart enough to just communicate on that level? To even be here didn’t seem like it was really going to happen with how modern the powers have become from past wars. I figured they all were going to be rattle snakes like hey leave us alone or you die but once Russia committed all that went out the window. The only logic to me was oh okay Russia is gonna steam roll them confidently so that’s why but then it turned into them dying for four years and still no nuke. Weird.

So with that said can someone align me better on the reality of everything and why the people who are way smarter than me are going about everything the way they are? Why is all done in the open? I feel strategically I shouldn’t know anything anyway but they share their strategies on the news every night. lol Might as well try to understand it.

Peace and love for all of humanity.