And most importantly relative to the article we can debate bang for our buck or what else could be done with some of that money. One can bring up evil dictator

And most importantly relative to the article we can debate bang for our buck or what else could be done with some of that money. One can bring up evil dictators or reserve currency or whatever, but there is lots of waste, irresponsible spending, pork barrel, district welfare and all sorts of other issues. To say nothing of the contractor complex. The objectives you speak of aren't being efficiently nor sustainably achieved. They are arguably and very tenuously occasionally being brute forced out in an extremely wasteful fashion. And this isn't a statement on the righteousness of American power projection which is another argument all together.