In a teaching hospital in Presov, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico gave voice to a fear many feel but few in power dare to speak aloud — the fear of being drawn into a war not of one's choosing. By publicly questioning NATO's Article 5 collective defense pledge, Fico has done something rare and unsettling: a sitting alliance leader has named the covenant that holds NATO together and said, plainly, that he hopes never to honor it. Whether born of genuine dread, political calculation, or both, his words have opened a wound in the alliance's public solidarity at a moment when that solidarity is