“All along, Russian aircraft, including bombers made for carrying nukes, have buzzed into our airspace and airspace over quite a few friendly nations and been escorted away by older NATO fighters. It’s the huff-and-run behavior of a problem child, and admirers of bullies sympathize with it.”
I think you terribly mistaken in your assessment of the situation. These are not games, these are military exercises designed to gauge NATO interceptor response times. These are prewar maneuvers, not tamper tantrums.
Very good points. These probes are to gather intel.