In Washington, Russia’s attack on Ukraine has been a call to arms. The United States has not only sped up weapons shipments to Ukraine’s beleaguered military, it has announced the deployment of 15,000 new troops to Eastern Europe since the crisis began, with more possibly to come. Congress just voted to boost the defense budget to $783 billion, an increase of about $40 billion in just one year, largely in the name of answering the Russian threat.

Pundits, meanwhile, see a new geopolitical reality: one where European security cannot be taken for granted; where the U.S. cannot afford to shift its focus from Europe to Asia or domestic troubles, and where visions of European “strategic autonomy” apart from the U.S. have proven a fantasy.

These views are wrong, and the U.S. military reaction is unnecessary. In fact, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reveals surprising weakness, and Europe’s response shows its ability to handle Russia’s threat without U.S. help. The war in Ukraine is a crime, a tragedy, and an opportunity for the United States to transition responsibility for European security to Europeans.

Since the early Cold War, the main rationale for garrisoning U.S. forces in Europe has been to balance Soviet, and then Russian, power to keep the peace. The decline of Soviet power and Europe’s growing wealth allowed for most U.S. troops in Europe to come home — from over 300,000 during the late Cold War to around 65,000 by 2021. But opposition in Washington to letting Europe mature into a power independent of U.S. strings, plus the belief that Europe remained too divided to match Russia’s military strength, prevented further reductions.

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