Why can't Europe defend itself?

[Kagemusha]

The original question of the thread is already wrong. Europe can defend itself from any regional threats. China is too far away to be a threat and Russia being a trade partner and with a GDP similar of Spain is not a serious threat to Europe anymore. In conventional forces Europe is stronger then Russia and the Nuclear arsenal of France and UK will assure that Nuclear war would mean the end to Russia also. So the only country that could hypothetically be a military threat to Europe is USA. Are you suggesting we should start a arms race with US? The truth is that Europe doesnt need a bigger military spending we already have and even those costs could be reduced by cutting off overlapping spending via more integrated military structure on EU level.