

Nobody is looking to escalate with them
Officially, no, but the US is on an imperialistic warmongering path. They can’t be the ones to kick it off themselves, they need to the geopolitical equivalent of “im not touching you!” until something happens so they can turn around and say “See! They’re the bad guys, but don’t worry we’ll save the worldddd!”
The empire has been on this current imperalistic plan since at least euromaiden, Orangey wining a second term was a fortunate, or unfortunate for the plan’s planners, kink