If this war was foreseeable and "in the works" for years, Russia's ineptitude in its execution is even more stunning. How could they not make sure that their equipment worked, that their troops were trained, or that massacring civilians would not be the best tactic?

An even bigger question is this: Why is Russia our enemy? Are they still playing the Great Game of the nineteenth century? Is this about autocracy vs. democracy? Post-Soviet Russia would have been welcomed into the industrialized, democratic West. They just had to not be a kleptocracy. But that was easier said than done, because seventy years of Soviet rule left the place ripe for the picking by the assholes who now run the place. Russia is our enemy because its bosses are scum. (Unlike the US, where only the Republicans Party's bosses are scum.)

The war was "unprovoked" and "unnecessary" in the sense that Russia could have made the threat of NATO military action against it no greater than the threat faced by the countries that joined NATO because they feared Russia. It's actually the eastward expansion of NATO that was provoked, as evidenced by the most recent additions. 1989 should have been the year Russia was liberated; instead, it was the year one set of thugs replaced another. The rest, as they say, is history.