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By which they meant "buy more US made weapons". And got stroppy if they tried to buy and build locally instead.

"We didn't act in our own self-interest because the US might have taken its toys and gone home."

There were three alternatives: [1] Don't spend on defense. [2] Spend on defense and buy American. [3] Spend on defense and buy European.

Europe (modulo Poland) picked the worst one. Even [2] is better than [1].

However, Europe did get a couple of decades of "Russia isn't a threat" and "we have soft power" posturing.

But, it turns out that the cowboys were right. There was a bear in the woods.