From someone's perspective these seemingly irrational choices make sense. That's what we need to understand. How and why...
I don't know why the Western leadership is assuming that if the Russians or the Chinese triumph over the respective small countries they are bullying, that NATO or an American Japanese and Australian military combination will win. You must question their rationality when:
*They push the green agenda at the same time Russian oil and natural gas have been cut off on the West's own initiative;
*They deplete military stockpiles to give to the Ukrainians while having no strategy to speed up replacements.
*They fail to adequately staff their militaries and to provide state of the art equipment in sufficient numbers.
*They run multi-trillion dollar/euro/pound sterling deficits in a rising interest rate environment.
We are either dealing with very delusional thinking, on the order of Hitler in the last few years of World War II or Chinese and Russian influence is so great that the leaders are acting in clear violation of their national interests.