Are we finally past the chest thumping? Has anyone pieced together Russian motivations to launch this assault?

I've been reading some of the tweets done by the brains of the Marine Corps I follow on Twitter.

Dead silence on this subject.

Same with the brains in the US Army, US Navy and even the US Air Force.

All are quiet.

The think tanks are all raging and taking up the usual positions that aren't even worth mentioning on my little blog. I won't even touch on the politicians.  They're as useless as most of us think and they're simply parroting each other.

So I leave it to you. What is the motivation behind this attack? Why would Putin roll the dice this hard and why at this moment? What was the flashpoint that made this course of action seem attractive.

We've been told for weeks that Russia would attack.  We were NEVER told WHY they would.

Personally I'd like to know.