Which isn’t a nice phrase. Google at your own risk.

More seriously, this incident, in which Russian forces seem to have ripped off more U.S. military equipment than the previously-reported Humvees. For all the idiotic commentary following the Russian characterization of our support for the democracies of Eastern Europe a “provocation,” there’s exactly no description of this—a real, deliberate provocation—as such. Why is Russia doing this? To provoke a reaction—or more specifically to confirm that we won’t react. This is exactly the way in which dictators always end up misreading democracies. Democracies act weakly, with an operative pacifism, up until a certain point (provided they haven’t disarmed themselves like Europe, then there’s no point at which the weakness ends), then they flip out and go to war in a total fashion that generally shocks and usually defeats the dictators. (The Vietnamese figured out that to avoid the totalist reaction, make the democracy war on itself, and the foreign quarrel begins to become secondary.)

This incident is precisely where we should do something inconsequential but unpleasant to the Russians to show them the limits of our indulgence. Ship some counter-battery radar to Ukraine or announce we’re talking to the Finns about selling them F-22s (whether we are or not). When pushed, push back, and you’re less likely to end up in a fistfight. Or, of course, si vis pacem, para bellum.

Confucius, Œc. Vol.

Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu.