I think you are right about the "smoke and mirrors" part, or at least that was the initial plan, but the ongoing warmongering on both sides is spinning out of control, hate feeds into more hate. After asking around among my friends, I'm the only one promoting peace at the moment, didn't get a single person in here to agree about that either (so far).
It's a sports team thing. Most people love to support their team despite it being detrimental to them. The players on the team and owners get rich, as the supporters hand over their hard earned money on tickets and paraphernalia. The other team is of course the enemy and they must be yelled at and insulted. Pride is of paramount importance. It seems war is no different, a team is picked, history ignored, and the leaders (and a few soldiers/players) are made into heroic celebrities as the people starve and die in ditches.
We also bitch and bicker about who is wrong and why. All the while ignoring the real problem that starts all conflicts, which is having unrepresentative opaque governments with sociopathic celebrity leaders.
This is the best explanation I've seen so far (ran out of merits again), too bad we don't solve all conflicts with sports.
Unfortunately, this time around the "proxy" part of the war is growing thin, NATO countries now openly admit sending weapons, and Russian allies are outspoken about their support as well. How long before NATO troops get involved directly? And when that happens, how long before the nukes go off?
As a citizen of the world (left the country where I was born back in 2001), having close to zero patriotism makes it easier to choose peace.
