"Pay for..." To whom? Do you think NATO works like the EU, redistributing money from "membership fees" to "subsidy recipients"? All the NATO countries pay for their own militaries out of their own budgets.
> I'm no fan of him nor his regime, but thinking he'll back down if we just escalate the situation a little more is fantasy.
Whoa, resurrection! Hallelujah! But why you, of all people?!? We'd all hoped you'd stay dead, Mr Chamberlain.
> EDIT: sigh, are we really just reddit these days, using downvotes to express disagreement?
No, this is HN. According to a comment I got from dang some time ago -- or was it just a link to the guidelines, so it's there? -- downvotes are a legitimate expression of disagreement.
> I'm not going to change my mind based on downvotes. Comment to tell me how I'm wrong.
Done. Keep whining, and you can have a downvote on top.