Of course I feel badly for all victims of this stupid war - Ukrainian citizens, Ukrainian fighters, Russian soldiers, etc. Bad for all involved. We all like narratives of good vs bad.
A commenter at Althouse ("Tim in Vermont") pretty much reflects my view:
Let's look at every reason but the expansion of a hostile and aggressive military alliance to Russia's border, because if we look at Putin's stated reasons, which every foreign policy expert who wasn't a neocon took for granted since we promised Gorbachov not to expand NATO east, that makes us the baddies, therefore we do these Putin mind-reading exercises to avoid dealing with our own culpability in this matter.
Russia's border is NATO's manifest destiny, right? My country, right or wrong, right? Ignorance is strength! We have been here before and it is not a proud chapter in our history.
Why did the Ukrainians undertake an offensive operation into Donbass (Where they have been committing war crimes like using white phosphorus artillery on civilian populations, BTW, for 8 years) , striking a match in the tinderbox, when Russian troops were massed on Ukraine's border, except to instigate a war?
Now the US strategy, cheered on here, is to drag out the war to maximize Russia's losses, no matter the cost in Ukrainian lives. We will see who comes out of this beloved by the victims in this war.