Europe comes to realization that it has few good alternatives to reliance on US

streiff:

There has been a lot of anxiety in some quarters over President Trump’s attitude to both the EU and NATO. He’s termed the EU as a “foe” in regards to their, in Trump’s opinion, trade practices. In the same breath he also termed China a foe. I don’t particularly disagree with him on that. The EU is nothing more than an excuse for rapacious bureaucrats to grab power via their ability to generate regulations. There is some truth in Trump’s critique of NATO. While there is no doubt that NATO is possibly the most successful alliance in world history–it faced down a nuclear armed USSR over the space of four decades and prevailed without firing a shot–it has been recognized since the mid-90s that the current NATO may have outlived its usefulness.

Today the Los Angeles Times had a story that tried to criticize Trump but, in reality, made his point if in a backhanded way: Trump’s attacks weaken transatlantic security relationship, but Europe has few alternatives.

Deeply alarmed at President Trump’s attacks on NATO and the transatlantic relationship, European governments are rethinking their reliance on the United States as a strategic ally against Russia, but they are unlikely to make regional security arrangements independent of Washington.

Trump has forced the reassessment in recent days by calling the European Union a “foe,” expressing reservations about defending other NATO members, and blasting Germany and other allies — comments he said were aimed at strengthening the U.S.-European alliance but that raised concerns across the continent.
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But European allies bewildered by Trump’s seeming hostility for NATO must confront a sobering reality: They have few good alternatives for protecting themselves against Russia or other potential adversaries.

This isn’t true, they have a very good alternative. They could all start spending 4% of their GDP on defense. They could de-unioinize their militaries. They could focus on actually training. Instead of playing bullsh** games and counting bridge and road and rail construction and maintenance as their NATO contribution, they could actually recruit and equip and train a military. The fact is that Europe chooses not to do these things because that would require something called “work.”
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There is more.

They need to get their act together and strengthen their portion of the alliance and stop the free-riding on the backs of the US.  In other words, they need to take Trump's complaints to heart and fix their own house.