[aaron-lebo]

Russia invaded Crimea with NATO and the US watching. It's not a stretch at all to imagine that Russia would be much more active if The US didn't spend more than anyone else in the world on their military many times over. You are drastically underestimating just how big the US military presence is. Either European nations would have to spend much more on their military (and lose some of their social democratic nature), or they'd be under constant threat.

Japan, Taiwan, and SK the same. Just look at the numbers.

Here's military expenditures for 2017 if you'd like facts:

1 United States 611.2 billion

2 China 215.7

3 Russia 69.2

4 Saudi Arabia 63.7

5 India 55.9

6 France 55.7

7 United Kingdom 48.3

8 Japan 46.1

9 Germany 41.1

10 South Korea 36.8