Here we go again. Another day, another stupid game of tag between the people who run the world and the people who want to ruin it. This time, the playground is the ocean. The players are Russia and France. And the referee, apparently, is Sweden. The whole thing is so dumb it makes my head hurt.

So here is what happened in the real world, before the politicians started spinning it. A French aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, was floating around. This is a massive ship. It costs billions of dollars. It has nuclear power. It carries jets that can fly faster than sound. It is supposed to be the ultimate weapon. It is supposed to make bad guys shake in their boots. But you know what happened? A little drone showed up.

According to the Swedes, this drone was Russian. Of course it was. Russia loves doing this. They are like that annoying kid in the back of the classroom who throws spitballs just to see if the teacher will yell. They sent a drone to buzz the big, fancy French ship.

Now, think about the difference in price here. The French ship costs more money than you will ever see in a thousand lifetimes. It takes thousands of people to run it. The drone? It probably cost less than a used car. And yet, that little piece of plastic and metal got everyone’s attention. It forced the big bad warship to react.

And how did they react? They “jammed” it. That means they used electronic waves to mess up the drone’s brain so it couldn't fly right or take pictures. They didn't shoot it down with a missile. They didn't send a jet to blow it up. They just hit the mute button. It is all so boring. It is high-tech warfare, but it feels like IT support turning a computer off and on again.

Then comes Sweden. Sweden used to be the country that stayed out of fights. They were neutral. They just wanted to sell furniture and make safe cars. But now they are part of the NATO club, so they have to sound tough. The Swedish Prime Minister came out and said this was a “serious” incident. He said it was the “Russian way of acting.”

Well, thanks for the update, genius. We know it is the Russian way of acting. They have been doing this for seventy years. They fly planes too close to our planes. They sail ships too close to our ships. And now they fly toys too close to our boats. It is not news. It is a habit. It is like saying water is wet or that politicians lie. We know.

But the Prime Minister has to say it is “serious” because he has to justify why we are all spending so much money on guns and ships. If he said, “Oh, it was just a little drone, who cares,” then people might ask why we need billion-dollar navies. So they have to pretend that this little buzz in the sky is a threat to the free world.

Let’s be honest about what this really is. It is posturing. It is a chest-bumping contest. Russia wants to show they can touch the West anytime they want. The West wants to show they have fancy gadgets to stop it. France wants to look strong. Sweden wants to look like a good ally.

And while they play these games with expensive toys, the rest of us are just trying to pay for groceries. The fuel used to move that aircraft carrier for one hour probably costs more than your house. The electronics used to jam that drone cost more than your retirement fund. They are burning piles of cash in the middle of the ocean just to prove a point that no one cares about.

Nothing actually happened. No one got hurt. The boat is still floating. The drone is gone. The world is exactly the same as it was yesterday, just a little bit dumber. But the leaders will give speeches. The news anchors will put on their serious faces. And the military companies will get new contracts to build better drones and better jammers.

It is a perfect cycle of waste. The Russians act like jerks. The West acts like victims. The money keeps flowing out of your pocket and into the war machine. And I am just sitting here, watching them play with toy planes, wondering why we let these people run anything at all. It was just a drone. But the reaction tells you everything you need to know about how broken our leaders are. They live for this drama. We just pay for it.