Six-time CIA station chief and former chief of operations for Europe and Eurasia, Ralph Goff, is not some kind of non-interventionist who is wary of 'blowback'. Instead, he's the opposite - the kind of hawk who has openly admitted he sought to reform the CIA to make it less risk averse (a darky ironic statement, we know).
The retired CIA station chief recently gave a highly revealing interview to Britain's The Times wherein he unleashed his frustrations regarding Biden's Ukraine policy. His testimony in the Times interview is highly revealing concerning the origins of the conflict, and given he described that from the start of the war Washington gave Ukraine just "enough arms to bleed".
Goff sought to present US policy particularly under the Biden administration as always going up to a certain point (or even 'red line' perhaps) in terms of support for Kiev, but pulling back before actually crossing it, ultimately on fears of Russia's nuclear arsenal. Or in other words, the US never wanted to go too fast, escalating gradually and just cautiously enough to avoid massive retaliatory escalation from Moscow.
