The rhetoric from Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Poland on Feb. 13 was part ritual solidarity to NATO and part warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin that any aggression in Eastern Europe will be met with a unified response from the 29-member alliance.

“Russia has grand designs of dominating Europe and reasserting its influence on the world stage,” Pompeo said during his tour of a NATO battle group in Orzysz, Poland. “Vladimir Putin seeks to splinter the NATO alliance, weaken the United States, and disrupt Western democracies.” This is precisely the kind of language the foreign policy elite in Washington love to hear. Outside of politics, however, this kind of talk reeks of desperation, not strength, and gives Russia far more credit than it deserves.