admin
Estonia woke up last Friday to a brazen provocation: three Russian MiG-31 fighters slipped into Estonian airspace and lingered for roughly 12 minutes, forcing NATO jets to scramble and the Estonian government to demand urgent consultations. This is not isolated or accidental — Tallinn says it’s the fourth such breach this year and rightly invoked Article 4 to get allies on the phone and on the record.
NATO’s quick intercept by Italian F-35s under the Baltic policing mission showed the alliance can respond, but the larger picture is deeply worrying: Russia is testing the West’s nerve along multiple fronts, from drone swarms over Poland to these audacious incursions in the Baltics. Weakness invites aggression, and European capitals cannot bluster then flinch when real deterrence is required.
Moscow predictably snarled denial, claiming its jets stayed over neutral waters — the usual Kremlin playbook of obfuscation and gaslighting while it probes NATO defenses. Americans should hear that for what it is: not plausible explanations, but rehearsed excuses from a regime that has made a habit of pushing boundaries when it senses hesitation.
That’s why voices like Ret. Gen. Jack Keane matter. Keane has repeatedly warned that the U.S. and our allies have been timid — more afraid of provoking Vladimir Putin than of ensuring American security — and he’s blunt: a decisive posture is the best deterrent because Putin does not ultimately want an all-out war with NATO. If our leaders lack the will to make that deterrent credible, Russia will keep probing until a misstep escalates.
Conservative commonsense demands we act like the world depends on American resolve, because it does. Keane has urged giving Ukraine what it needs to degrade the Kremlin’s military capability and make clear that any assault on NATO territory triggers an unmistakable and united response — not timid press statements and empty sanctions that Moscow already plans around. Our allies deserve leadership, and the men and women of our armed forces deserve a strategy that prevents war by making aggression too risky for the Kremlin to consider.
America must side with courage, not caution masquerading as prudence. Estonia did the right thing by asking NATO to convene Article 4 consultations, and now the alliance should turn those talks into concrete measures that restore deterrence on the eastern flank — more patrols, clearer rules of engagement, and guaranteed resupply to partners who stand in the path of Russian expansionism. Stand with our allies, back the Ukrainians properly, and let the Kremlin know that testing America and NATO is a losing gamble.
