© Sputnik/Denis PetrovThe destroyer USS Donald Cook during the joint Ukrainian-US naval drill Sea Breeze 2015.
Russian warplanes made the USS Donald Cook look more like a sitting Donald Duck bobbing helplessly on the Baltic Sea when they streaked by the vessel. The dramatic face-off followed by the appearance of US impotence is probably what underlies the angry reaction in Washington.
It's the equivalent of getting caught in a spotlight with your trousers around your ankles.
But put the incident in a more serious, objective perspective and the American hysteria says more about their subjective and dangerous arrogance than about alleged Russian recklessness.
A US guided-missile destroyer only 70 nautical miles from Russian territory at Kaliningrad is given a stern display of aerobatics by two Sukhoi Su-24s — and then Washington erupts with accusations of being harassed by an "insane flyby".
The White House was full of indignation over "reckless Russian provocation", while the Pentagon was outraged that one of its ships could be literally rocked in the Baltic Sea by the wake created by the low-flying Russian warplanes.
Let's run that scenario in reverse to highlight how "American exceptionalism" has become a chronic condition of irrational double-think. If a Russian warship was to approach the US coastline in similar fashion — even if theoretically in international waters — we can be sure that US fighters jets would be scrambled and forcefully deployed. The Russian ambassador would also probably be summoned in Washington.
However, unlike Russia, the US warship this week comes on the back of a massive military build-up by American forces and their NATO allies around Russian territory over the past two years — in flagrant violation of past agreements, such as the Russia-NATO Founding Act.
Moreover, senior Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and his Joint Chiefs of Staff, have over the same period repeatedly labelled Russia as an existential global threat. Without providing any credible proof against Russia, those unilateral assertions are in themselves acts of American aggression.
Comment: These "dramatic reversals" in conflicts between terrorist groups sure are interesting, especially when you consider who finances and controls them. It's almost like conflict is being prolonged as long as possible in order to achieve maximum chaos. Meanwhile the Syrian government forces continue their slow, steady push. This is good news, but as always it is bitter-sweet - the blood of ordinary people continues to be spilled while the architects of this war sit safely away from the reach of any justice.