“ I wish I could understand how they expect to benefit from all this destruction.”
In the near term, they believe it is better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven.
In the long term, they are utopians, they believe (like a real estate developer) that you must first demolish what is there and grade the land flat to build your new palace. Creative destruction, they think it is. In truth it never works that way with civilizations. In the end it is just destructive destruction for many generations.
Have they forgotten that they’re destroying the lives of large numbers or armed people?