The upside of war has always been that the process of warfare requires a lot of materials, weapons, technology and support services, all of which are potential money makers for those who supply them.
The downside of war is that there are casualties with the resulting social consequences of their effect on families and communities. There is also the destruction of war if it is on your own soil. Finally, there are the social consequences of the necessary sacrifices and the fatigue of continually hearing about and seeing the destruction of war on the media.
It is easier to sustain public support if the war is being fought on foreign soil and you have no troops at risk. Another means of sustaining social support for a war is to present the enemy as evil and who can therefore be demonized in the media as somehow not really human, but instead outside the pale of humanity and therefor deserving no human concern. It is simply good versus evil.
The war in Ukraine is, in modern terms, a perfect war.
 · It has all the financial benefits for those who supply the necessary war materials that any war uses.
 · It is being waged against our archenemy, Russia, easily portrayed as a true empire of evil, deserving no real human concern. Great for propaganda.
 · Since we are sending only funding, supplies and weapons and no "boots on the ground", there are no casualties and therefore no particular social backlash.
 · In addition, the casualties are at the hands of the evil empire and therefore deserve our sympathy and support. (It also helps that they are white and mostly Christian so we can identify with them as opposed to the civilian casualties in Iraq, for example.)
 · The coalition of the willing in this case are identified by an expanding NATO which the US dominates. It is the West (more civilized) against the East (more barbarian).
 · We, as citizens, fund the war without realizing it, with the military spending that already takes up over half of our national budget. (There will be more coming which we will be told is necessary, spending for a noble cause.)
 · We can sit in our homes and easily support the noble Ukrainian, "good guys" against Putin and his evil hoard for the foreseeable future.
 · Meanwhile, domestic spending can continue to be put off a while longer as we watch the income inequality grow even larger, nationally.
 · Finally, we have achieved some kind of national unity, in that it is nearly impossible to hear any voices that might possibly question the nobility of this war.
Why, this could go on forever with continuing support, providing the necessary noble distraction that keeps us from ever confronting the national and global issues that only continue to grow in severity as we watch this perfect war as spectators as others die to support our national objectives of damaging and weakening Russia.
