Bill,

As you may have noted before President Trump's visit to the UK policy on defence spending has gained some traction, if only gauged from media headlines. The reality for the UK is that other issues occupy political attention, a potent mix of Brexit and the far wider political and public attraction of spending elsewhere than defence.

I expect a good number of European politicians, plus a significant public minority, are concerned that being a member of NATO and pursuing national defence led to a long war in Afghanistan - which had wide public support at the start - supporting the USA. If defence spending was to grow it would have to be for defence inside NATO's AoR, not further afield.

IISS has a commentary and points out that:
First, US direct spending on European defence currently amounts to just over 5% of the total US defence budget, as measured by the IISS.
Link:https://www.iiss.org/blogs/military-...sts-and-value?

There is an interesting column by Professor Paul Rogers on NATO; a key passage:
On its own account the alliance faces three tough problems: Russia, Afghanistan, and the changing context of global security.
Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/paul-r...-thinking-gap?