The US doesn't care if threatening Russia creates a dangerous security scenario in Europe, because its geographic distance from the conflict allows it not to feel the implications of its actions, European lawmakers said today.

Speaking to Sputnik, some European lawmakers expressed their astonishment at the US' threatening posture toward Russia, while European countries themselves are much more careful about what happens on their continent.

Armin-Paulus Hampel, the Foreign Policy Spokesperson of Germany's AfD party said:  "There are some 4,000 nautical miles between the US and Europe. It partly explains that the US can be bluntly threatening and do not seem to care for the delicate situation in Europe, while Europeans are much more careful for what happens next door in and around Ukraine."

Read more: Strategic Self-Deception

The lawmaker found it astonishing that the US antagonism toward Russia is so strong while China poses a more pressing threat for it, and considered that this course adopted by the US is out of fear of losing the connection "with Europe within NATO" and the desire to keep European countries "within NATO", especially since Germany and France began talking of closer relations with Russia.

NATO at Ukraine's mercy

Thierry Mariani, a French member of the EU Parliament said that the US' current anti-Russian course is "crazy", and found the US' domestic policy to be the main source of the current escalation of tensions.

"We are now in NATO at the mercy of a provocation by Zelensky's government in Kyiv," the French lawmaker said.

The only irresponsible and truly dangerous players in these events, Mariani said, are Ukraine and its leaders, as they have nothing to lose since it is evident that Russia does not want war.

Americans accustomed to war "over there" not "over here"

In an opinion piece for Bloomberg written mid-December, Hal Brands, a Professor at Johns Hopkins University says that Americans have gotten accustomed to war being something that happens "over there", but in the next war this might change to something they experience "over here".

Though the US has been attacked before at home, there were only three instances, with the war of 1812 with the British, the Japanese striking Hawaii in 1941, and on 9/11 in a terrorist attack. But these occurrences are exceptions.

However, the US' rivals are increasing, China is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal and military, while North Korea and Russia are developing their technologies so as to hit US targets with conventional warheads mounted on long-range missiles. 

Absolute protection, writes Brands, is an "illusion", and the US needs to accept the likelihood of attacks on its homeland, as so far it has had the advantage of power and geography to protect it, which is no longer valid with advances in military technology. 

This will provoke harsh debates about the costs of US expansionism, and the US needs to come to grips with its vulnerabilities now, and not after the next conflict starts.