I’m being unfair to Booth of course, since he did at least assassinate an American President and Europe probably can’t even do that nowadays.
Paraphrasing Shrek, You and What Navy?
There’s a reason for this situation.
As a result there was this rather scathing analysis, which stretches things a bit too far, but makes me laugh:
As Ace of Spades put it a few weeks ago – in the wake of the Trump-Zelenskyy dustup in the Oval Office, and looking at the reactions of the likes of Sir Keir Starmer of Britain and President Macron of France saying that Europe had to step up and take responsibility for defending itself – European Leaders’ Proclaimed Self Reliance is Laughable:
The prospect of not having to subsidize and provide virtually all the defense for our parasitic “allies” caused Americans to enthusiastically embrace Europe’s response. It was one of those “Your terms are acceptable moments.” Of course, we all know that Europe’s ability to provide for its own defense is as laughable as a little boy asserting his independence by running away from home with his belongings tied up in a bindle.
It’s not just a matter of military expenditure and weapons, or even the numbers of men. It’s a question of morale and what Europeans are actually willing to fight for, especially there supposed “principles” of democracy and more importantly, liberty?
A recent poll by Matt Goodwin in Britain showed that the number of adults who would refuse to fight for their country has more than doubled in 20 years from 19% to 41%. Well why would you fight, when you’re being told that famous paintings of the British countryside (Constable, etc) evoke “dark nationalist feelings” and the places that house them need to be overhauled, with an emphasis on “diversity”? How the hell is the Establishment that teaches Britons to hate their own country and its history going to convince them to sacrifice anything, let alone living British men, for Ukrainian nationalism?
American novelist Walter Kirn has an acidic take on the performative nonsense of the Euros:
A long-time favourite writer of mine, “Doctor Zero” (aka John Hayward) spots another aspect to this bullshit from the Euros:
There is an element among European center-Left support for Ukraine that reeks of displaced nationalism. They know their own countries are gone, so they’re looking for a flag to wave and a slogan to chant, like sports fans seeking spiritual fulfillment from their fandom.
Focusing back on Britain (but mainland Europe is worse) there is this other force adding to the efforts of the Hate Britain Elite:
No Minister 
It’s not surprising that Latvia and Estonia are spending so much of their military budgets on Ukraine.
Also how much of that money that the USA “spends on Europe’s defence”, actually spent on propping up their own arms industry? It’s also spoken of as if the money is all being given away to people offshore, but of course that’s a nonsense. A massive amount is spent paying US weapons manufacturers
And apparently some in the administration would like it to remain that way
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-officials-object-european-push-buy-weapons-locally-2025-04-02/