Tigers

A seemingly minor event occurred a few days ago in Estonia. It went largely unreported in the MSM and when mentioned, was reported without context or background. Immediately after Barack Obama's visit to Estonia in which he promised to defend that small country from Russian aggression, Russia kidnapped an Estonian intelligence officer and spirited him to Russia.

Investor's Business Daily Reports:

Less than 48 hours after President Obama vowed to "defend Estonia," Russian goons kidnapped an Estonian cop to demonstrate just what U.S. red lines are worth. Any questions as to the nature of the threat?

The abduction of Internal Security Service officer Eston Kohver from Estonia was no ordinary criminal act.

The Russians who took him jammed police radios, tossed a smoke grenade, seized Kohver and marched him into Russia at gunpoint. They then falsely claimed that he was caught spying on Russian soil.

It was nonsense. Estonia's leaders have said it was clearly a targeted attack and very serious, coming as it did two days after Obama made his strongest-worded speech ever on U.S. commitment to the NATO alliance.

Richard Fernandez sums up brilliantly:

Russia’s strategy has been malevolently brilliant, psychologically at least. Faced with an occupant of the Oval Office who lives by words, Putin is screening a silent movie. The Ukraine is being invaded by stealth. Estonia is being attacked by subterfuge. Finland is being intimidated in pantomime. Putin is riding dirty without making a sound. The visuals are unambiguous, but since there’s no dialog, no musical score — because there’s no words — the president is unable to respond.

And this is intentional: Obama’s boundaries are all on paper and Putin refuses to cross the lexical frontier.

Actions do speak louder than words, but not in the mindset of the Left. In Obama's worldview, hope and change were words that would somehow transform a country and the world. Too bad they didn't. Not even a little.

Too many times, this president has relied on empty words instead of concrete actions, and as a consequence, he is correctly perceived as empty, dishonest, and weak. That's a very dangerous brew, and one that Vladimir Putin (one of the world's hard men) clearly understands.

Fernandez gets to the core of the problem:

Putin has drawn a Red Line he reckons Obama won’t cross. By speaking pointedly of Russia’s nuclear weapons and boasting his armies could reach Kiev in a couple of weeks, he’s made it clear he wants to mix it up. He’s rolled up his shirt and cut himself a few times across the abs just to demonstrate he doesn’t mind bleeding. He has all but dared Obama to cross the line from words to risky action.

Putin is betting, with the calm calculation of a professional thug, that he’s dealing with a tenderfoot unused to getting hurt and losing teeth, who may squeal as he strips him of his possessions, but who will acquiesce anyway — out of fear, out of civility, out of unfamiliarity with pain and the astonishment of someone actually laughing at him.

Like a tiger who’s tasted blood, Putin has lost his fear of Obama. Unless that caution can be reinstated, and unless that dangerous animal is caged, a very great danger faces the world; for now the tiger, who earlier could have been cowed with but a little effort, must now belatedly be forced back at grave risk and possible injury or death.

But the tiger is not alone. He is but one of many Tigers who are watching silently and plotting their actions with care. They understand that words don't really matter, but actions, that's something else altogether.

The Tigers lie in wait in China, where we are already seeing troubling actions in the South China sea region. In Iran, where the government continues its soon to be successful quest for nuclear weapons, unimpeded by Obama's words. And even in the barbaric "Islamic State, formed because Barack Obama refused to act when the state was an embryo and could have been terminated easily.

With each hint of weakness, the Tigers move imperceptibly into a more aggressive position. Their stare hardens as their senses indicate their prey's weakness and indecision. When the time is right, they will pounce.