Hmm, this thread has rather drifted.
In the interest of reasoned discussion, I'll try and play devil's advocate here and communicate the views of some in Europe (not necessarily my own).
For some, the whole 'Europeans should count America as a friend and respect her accordingly because she protects Europe from Russia' is an interesting one. On the one hand, yes, American involvement with NATO is undoubtedly a foil to Russian interests in Europe, but at what cost does it come? When NATO came about, it was a no brainer. Back then, Russia = communism, and few countries in Europe wanted that, so American assistance was gratefully recieved. Plus, most of Europe was broke. But today? There is still a gulf between Russian policy and culture and that of say France or Germany, but it's now much smaller than it once was.
In that context, the question is really 'Are American and European interests actually any closer aligned than Russian and European ones?'. To many Europeans, the answer isn't actually that clear. There are huge social, political and cultural differences between Europe and America today as well, so Russia, by comparison, doesn't seem that alien. Russia is quite agressive and expansionist, perhaps more so than America is, undoubtedly in Europe, but few people in Europe genuinely believe that there is a threat of Russian annexation of 'major' European powers anyway, so is that an issue? Ukraine, yeah, but nuclear powers or major nations like France or Germany? Harder to believe. As such, the 'need' for NATO is seen as reduced.
At that point, the question arises as to whether the 'cost' of increased American involvement in Europe is worthwhile for that security. For some at least, the real cost here is the cultural dilution. Close links with America have historically meant increased import of American culture, business and ideas. TV, Music, Movies, Products, Brands and most importantly Politics. European nations also get dragged into 'American Wars' such as Iraq etc through NATO or American links that actually, we'd have happily kept out of otherwise. With that backdrop, do these American links actually align with current European societal norms and crucially is this something that Europeans actually want in 2018? Furthermore, would rejection of a lot of these links actually be to Europes benefit, even if at the cost of closer links with Russia? For some, it's hard to say.
Rightly or wrongly, the simple fact is that many Europeans feel that they have very little in common with America and feel little comradeship with her people, politics or policy, so the idea of American meddling, no matter how altruistic, in Europe doesn't always sit well. There isn't an obvious 'enemy at the gates' like there used to be with communism, so the benefit of that aid isn't as clear. This lack of concern is also reflected in the lack of military investment by many NATO members at present. Who are they spending 2% of GDP to protect from, really?
