If they still expect some sort of regime change in Russia, they're utterly delusional. We're going to see that happen in western countries long before Russia given the state of social cohesion here.
The fatal error is they assumed Russia was going to be like Iraq or Libya where they could shock and awe a much weaker nation and that a color revolution movement could be found/generated. Russia was too strong and Putin too popular for either to materialize.
Was victory ever truly even desired? I figured this was a new potential forever-war to pad the bottom lines of MIC companies. Regime change in Russia would obviously be ideal for the ghouls but a constant flow of cash to the MIC is reason enough
No, from the beginning it looked like a typical hegemony maintenance proxy war to destabilize entire region. Tried and practiced for decades in the West Asia.