Wars are large, slow-moving beasts. Even if nothing had changed in Europe (beyond executing the 2022 plans, anyway) it'd be reasonable to expect the current con

Wars are large, slow-moving beasts. Even if nothing had changed in Europe (beyond executing the 2022 plans, anyway) it'd be reasonable to expect the current conflict to expand. There was a concerning level of global instability starting to bubble even before COVID hit. The US military didn't suddenly lose the ability to deter Russia in 2022. And China's growing military budget is also related because the US can't realistically manage a whole bunch of theatres simultaneously - so the Europeans are re-arming. Of course the realignment caused by the Europeans having significant militaries can only be positive for EU-US relations. I can really only see the Europeans using their military to defend against the sort of aggressors who would go in and blow up things like the Nord Stream pipeline so there wouldn't be any cause for tension with the Americas.