By the way this is, in any meaningful sense of the word, radicalization

the funniest part is this guy is a 60 something intelligence analyst who hasn't seen a hot combat zone firsthand since the 90s. He's not exactly going to be out on the frontlines, both because he is tactically worthless and because if the doughy fucker did get shot or captured by Russians that would be taken as justification for the US to get actively involved. How does the threat of WW3 measure up against one man's greed and vanity?

He's kicking back on a supply depot somewhere, waiting for the Atlantic Council to cut his shell company think tank a nice fat check as a reward for all this PR he's doing. Like pushing for the US to arm Ukraine even more heavily than we already are.

That picture of him all decked out in battle rattle so clean you could eat off of it is no different from the pictures all the fobbits would take while they were downrange in Iraq or Afghanistan in between typing up reports. Just posturing for the rubes back home. It would be embarrassing if it wasn't so dangerous.