weren't raising hell by overthrowing governments, protecting the interests of multinational companies and busily making as many enemies as possible, losing the hearts and minds of billions in an effort to protect corporate interests,

they wouldn't be needed.

However, just as we need illegal immigrant workers to keep wages low, we need enemies abroad to justify spending an unconscionable amount of money on "defense", which is not being spent on "defense" except against enemies our actions have created.

It's all folly, being sold as "defense", "safety" and "security". And it will go on as long as people are told the same story from birth.

However, the cast will change. The US is being marginalized, has less economic clout, less to export and is less able to protect Western interests. Those same multinationals for which the military is working now will abandon the US as soon as it is economically feasible to ally with other countries.

America could have accomplished the same thing with libraries and hospitals as it did with bombs and troops kicking in doors, and slept even better, but chose to continue war and violence as a means of national influence.

Sad, but it's in the adolescent genes.