Whether it's Iran playing chicken with US patrol boats in the Persian Gulf, Russia buzzing US ships in the Black Sea, or China demanding American ships adhere to phony claims of sovereignty over the air and water of the South China Sea, the narrative seems to follow an all-too-familiar script.

The Pentagon denounces the provocations as "unprofessional," issues a stern warning, and then there are no consequences. "It's like a mom in a grocery store, or a parent, and the kids are running amok and they say 'stop that right now or else,' but the 'or else' never comes, so the kids behave as badly as they want to," said Dakota Wood, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. "If there aren't any consequences, then the bad behavior just escalates."

The latest incident occurred Saturday, when a US EP-3 reconnaissance plane, flying off the coast of Iran in the northern Persian Gulf, received a radio threat from the Iranian military. "Leave the area, or we will shoot you down with missiles," is how one Pentagon official described the menacing communication. The US spy plane ignored the warning since it was clearly flying in international airspace, the official told the Washington Examiner. Still, emboldened by a lack of concrete response from the US, the number and seriousness of such incidents continues to rise dramatically.