Over the skies of Lithuania, NATO's eastern vigilance met an unexpected test when fighter jets scrambled to intercept what radar and protocol deemed a threat — only for the wreckage to reveal a flock of birds. The episode, brief in duration but rich in implication, captures the condition of an alliance perpetually poised between readiness and restraint along Europe's most watched frontier. That the correction was made publicly, and promptly, speaks to something worth noting in an age when the first story so rarely yields to the true one.