How exciting! Let's pull our troops out of Germany and use the money for the betterment of the United States.
Let's pull our troops out of everywhere.
I almost go along with that. Korea has the money and industry that they could hold their own protection I would think. Japan really does not need us. The only use of Japan is a holding and assembly area. We have bases in Alaska close to Japan. Could see if Brazil would like a base. Might see if Australia would like to host a base. Or Build aircraft carriers for the Air force USAF..... Navy would have to operate them.
We have bases in over 150 nations. You haven't even scratched the surface.
We pay a lot more to maintain those bases and forces than we ever got in resources.
Who is "we?" The US tax payer?
Of course not, we don't get shit. A few jobs out of it maybe, and shit ones at that.
However, to project our power and keep our hegemony, not necessarily, "for us," but for the powers that run the establishment?
Not really. We foot the bill, and they don't care. It isn't a trade off equation that the fascistic relationship of global capitalism using force to enforce imperialistic policies even calculates as a asset/liability equation, b/c the only cost to them is lobbyists, and in their total budget? Psssh, peanuts, especially when the system has multitudes of tax free foundations, think tanks and mass media corporations blitzing the populace with their paradigm of reality. Hell, folks here can't even think of any other paradigm.
That isn't how the socialism of corporatocracy works. Taxpayers make sure that governments are friendly to our/western IMF/world-bank imperialism, global corporations in many nations reap the benefits.
It is a world wide racket, they just use the US tax payer as the poor sods that pay for it all, and the US military is the goon squad to enforce the parameters of the racket.