You're mixing a couple of things here; we're not talking about defense in general, but specifically to the thesis that without US military presence, France/UK/G

You're mixing a couple of things here; we're not talking about defense in general, but specifically to the thesis that without US military presence, France/UK/Germany could/would go into conflict; this is just ridiculous, as much as thinking that US countries would go into a conflict as well, because they had a civil war in the past.