The debate over the Ukraine war long ago bogged down into a debate over whether Putin or Zelensky is ‘Hitler’. Rather than recycle the same tired rhetoric, I have argued that what’s happening has little to do with P or Z, but with the larger history of Russians and Ukrainians, and is primarily a European failure.

The weakness of the Obama and Biden administrations led Putin to dare more than he would have otherwise, but the ultimate weakness always lay with the Western Europeans who liked the idea of an integrated Europe that could concentrate on agricultural subsidies without having to worry about national defense.

Now, the Euros are belatedly waking up to a world in which America may no longer be their shield.

French President Emmanuel Macron called on Europeans to dramatically increase their yearly defense spending to over 3 percent of GDP on Sunday, after attending an emergency summit on Ukraine in London.

While Baltic nations have long called for military spending to rise to at least 3 percent of GDP and U.S. President Donald Trump has demanded 5 percent, this is the first time the French leader has specified a new number.

“For the past three years, the Russians have been spending 10 percent of their GDP on defense. We need to prepare what comes next, with an objective of 3 to 3.5 percent of GDP,” Macron said in an interview with French daily Le Figaro.

France currently spends 2.1 percent of GDP on its military annually — barely above NATO’s 2 percent target, a level that Paris reached only last year.

Good, if it happens.

Yes, it would be good for us if Europe became more able to defend itself, and it would be good for Europe. That in some ways is more important.

Unlike 90% of the people who are very angry about Ukraine or Russia in one direction or another, and making assorted foolish arguments about it, my position has been that it’s not really our problem and that it’s up to the participants to resolve. And since Europe wants to take responsibility for Ukraine, let them.

A Europe with some backbone may even prove ready to deal with its Islamic invasion problem. We’ll see.

Europe’s dependency on America is unhealthy for both sides. A Europe able to defend itself will make a better partner for America.