Originally Posted by
West Coast
Russia invaded Ukraine, precisely the opposite of what you're postulating. Wriggle as you might, you won't transfer Europe's failure to provide for its own defense to the US via some bizarre counterfactual diatribe. I'm curious now how you'll next assign blame to the US for Europe's dependency on Russian energy. Tackle that next please.
I think what's being suggested is that Europe was the de facto battle ground between Russia and the US. i.e. that the US was going to defend itself in Europe. I don't mean that was an evil strategy or anything but that it is of course better to do your fighting as far away from home as possible. The Russians obviously responded to this by building a huge force. The US could have chosen not to spend all that money and risk having Russian effort concentrated on other things.