Aging leaders' spectacle fuels reckless wars

An aging political leadership steeped in Cold‑War era imaginaries uses short, viral media spectacles to pursue military action, prioritizing attention and emotional payoff over coherent strategic objectives. That dynamic produces wars with shifting goals, weak exit plans, and higher risk of escalation because decisions are driven by mood and performative reward rather than policy calculation. — If true, it reframes accountability for foreign interventions, shifting scrutiny from only policy competence to generational attention dynamics and media incentives that reward spectacle.