Oh no, I did sound like a neocon!  In my first comment, I should have gone on to say that while many European countries could spend more on defense, the US should be spending less.  (Maybe 3% of GDP)  And the US should put much more effort into peacekeeping and nation building.

I didn't mean to turn this into a defense forum, but my point was that a lot of the criticism that is directed towards Europe's economic policies is really motivated by other, non-economic reasons.