To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and to the Secretary-General of the largest, most expensive military alliance on the planet, everything looks like an excuse for taxpayers to get out their wallets.

NATO Chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s latest commentary reads much like every other commentary on every other situation even remotely NATO themed, a plea for dramatic increases in military spending to “modernize” a fighting force that is already the overwhelming majority of the planet’s armed forces.

Today, the excuse is the Russian annexation of Crimea, which Rasmussen spun as a need for “intensive training” to confront Russia militarily, and a major hike in deployments to eastern Europe for “defense.”

Rasmussen’s position is nothing new for him, or for NATO’s leadership, as US officials have similarly pushed for spending increases, the same increases they were fighting for last summer without the illusory Russian threat, but now with a new sense of feigned urgency.