We all remember Donald Trump's complaint about military spending in NATO, in this case he was only expressing something that is widely observed. Here is a typical quote;
“For decades Europeans have paid relatively little in money, lives or resources for their defence — and paid even less attention, sheltering under an American nuclear umbrella left over from the Cold War.” Steven Erlanger New York Times 17th February (5 days before the invasion)
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/17/world/europe/ukraine-russia-europe-nato-security.html
Lords Dannet and West were very clear on The Week in Westminster on Saturday 26/2/22;
Thoeodore Roosevelt they recalled said "speak softly and carry a big stick". Our politicians are speaking loudly because they don't have a stick, in fact one of them went so far as to say that our current defence policy amounted to "operationalising their bumper sticker of global Britain". Some of our assets such as they are, are in the wrong hemisphere, our interests, they pointed out, lie in the security of Europe.
What maybe needs adding to this is that not all fault lies with Europe, a conservative Australian perspective lamenting the lack of US leadership over a prolonged time can be found in
America in Retreat, the. Decline of US leadership from WW2 to Covid. Michael Pembroke, Oneworld, 2020, ISBN 978-1-78607-987-9
On p136-7 we have “conduct that helps create the very threat against which it is designed to protect is the American led expansion of NATO…right up to the borders of Russia’’. The book notes that George Kennan and almost 2 dozen retired senior officials from the state and defence departments penned an open letter opposing NATO expansion in 1995