Well, in the case of Iraq though, it seems a slam dunk, since Iraq had not attacked any NATO member. If the US wants other NATO members to step up, then they s

Well, in the case of Iraq though, it seems a slam dunk, since Iraq had not attacked any NATO member. If the US wants other NATO members to step up, then they should reduce payments. Either NATO members will make the determination that the new budget constraints represents an unacceptable level of reduction in capability below which they think is required, or they'll think NATO doesn't need as large a budget. Realistically, NATO's deterrence effect against Russia comes down to nuclear-MAD. The conventional forces don't matter as much, if NATO is attacked by Russia conventionally, and NATO goes to war, you have a direct hot war between two nuclear equipped entities which is a bit too much risk, so there's little chance of a Russian invasion of a NATO member regardless of NATO conventional defense capabilities. I think it's likely any conflicts with non-NATO states on the Eurasian continents will likely be proxy conflicts, with NATO and Russia backing different factions, like with the Korean War, Vietnam, and Afghanistan.