This is John Batchel, commenting with my good colleague, Colonel Jeff McCausen, about the European

commitment to a larger and more effective military presence. They're augmenting the U.S. here

and there, but a genuine European army, something in NATO or parallel to NATO. And I asked Jeff if he thinks

they're sincere. He goes on to break it down in terms of commitment and how much money it looks like.

But there is that factor which Jeff and I talk about, that the General Secretary of NATO

believes that Russia will attack a NATO nation within the next

five years. Will that be enough time to get Europe ready? The answer so far is no.

Is Jeff McCausen on the commitment, the sincerity of the commitment by the Europeans to their own defense.

So far, it appears they are sincere.

We came out of the NATO summit and based on their commitment, the European members of the

alliance, to go to 5% of GDP on defense by 2035.

If you do the math on GDP right now, John, that's $14 trillion.

That's an enormous amount of money to be spent over the next decade or so.

Now, whether they can meet that commitment or not is of greater concern in some ways.

Because you go back to 2014, the NATO summit in Wales, these same countries committed to 2% of GDP in a few years.

And there are a number of them who don't even meet that 2% even today.

It's tonight.