whiskey,
I believe you underestimate the military strength of Europe. Perhaps not relative to its height at the peak of the Cold War, but relative to the diminished state of Russia’s military, it’s still quite powerful.

Russia’s total military manpower, once several times that of the USA, is now around half as large as our nation alone.

Britain’s armed forces outnumber the Russians as well, nowadays, and they have fully equipped modern armor regiments.

Europe has gotten softer, but I doubt it’s as soft as you make it out to be. . . at least not yet.