The debate over Ukraine is less about the actual country and more about Europe’s role. The meeting with Zelensky was a wake-up call that business as usual was over. And Europe is reacting by doing what President Trump had spent years urging them to do.

France’s Macron has said that France will aim 5% of its GDP at defense spending, the number that Trump had previously urged, and proposed that the rest of Europe should aim at 3% to 3.5%. The EU is proposing an $839 billion defense spending package as part of a ReArm Europe plan that will spend on “air and missile defence, artillery systems, missiles and ammunition drones and anti-drone systems.”

And it’s to be paid for by boosting by an average of 1.5% GDP up from the current 2% or so. That will hit the 3.5% number Macron suggested and likely the real number that Trump had in mind.

All of this means that Europe will potentially step up and take some of the burden off our shoulders. And that is much more important than whatever does or doesn’t happen with Ukraine.

The Russia – Ukraine war is not, despite the people who have been pushing this stuff for years, World War III. It’s not a vast conspiracy and mostly it has very little to do with us apart from the money we’re spending on it. But it is an opportunity to shift gears.

And Europe is at least indicating a readiness to do so. This is good news for us and for Europe.

As I’ve been saying all along, ignore the hysterics and bedwetters and focus on the bigger picture. This is the bigger picture.