You are missing: The technological edge is unknown against a near peer. Any edge has a non-zero maintenance cost. Adversaries are not going to stop improving

You are missing: The technological edge is unknown against a near peer. Any edge has a non-zero maintenance cost. Adversaries are not going to stop improving their capabilities so any advantage naturally decays. The US Military directly employs a couple million people. Our current military industrial complex is highly reliant on free trade agreements with allies.