Last week, news outlets reported, in dire terms, the significance of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s journey to North Korea, where Kim Jong Un and hundreds of thousands of his citizens turned out to welcome him. A new alliance had arisen.

Not only would North Korea provide Russia with missiles and vast supplies of artillery shells for its war against Ukraine, but Iran was also shipping drones to Russia. And of course, Putin and China’s leader Xi Jinping had already announced a “no limits” partnership.

One predictable outcome in the U.S. is to react with surprise and then overreact to Russian or Chinese initiatives. With sanctions and other obstructions limiting Russia's warmaking capacity, it is shortsighted to believe that Russia would accept the status quo and not look for other options.

Before returning to Moscow and Pyongyang's new pact of steel, it is important to observe an example of this default overreaction setting.

Two weeks ago, a four-ship Russian naval task force was heading for Cuba. Traditional and social media broadcast warnings as these ships sailed within 100 miles of the Florida coast.

However, a closer........

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