Goldman is a smart guy, but he IMHO missed this totally. The fact is the US influence in Europe is at all time high because of this war. Case in point, Germany can only just shut up when the Nordstrom pipeline was blown off. It was a direct attack on Germany's national interest, and not a pip from them. In fact, Germany's foreign minister is a hardcore US supporter. The US benefit the most from the war in Ukraine. Sure it gave tens of billions to Ukraine, but it also reap the benefit from selling energy and arms to Europe. Not to mention, European companies moving their operation to the US due to high energy cost at home. I also don't think Russia is getting stronger in this war. The cost of this war is tremendous for Russia, from money to lives lost. While the chance of Russia winning this war is certainly higher than Ukraine, one must ask at what cost. The longer this war going on, the less effective Russia is as China's ally too. Russia will be to overwhelmed with this war to pose any serious challenge to the US, that mean China can only rely on itself.

One thing for sure, the Americans will love to portray this war as a win for China, to sow discord between China with Russia, Europe and certainly Ukraine. None of those countries are happy with this war.