Yea, that's great and all but what happens when China and it's 1.4 billion people get their stuff together?

It's astounding that it seems that few in the US government seem to acknowledge that we may not be on top always, and what goes around comes around. There will be real future costs for our moral corruptness.

Regardless of what the US does now, China will do later what the US is doing now. So the US might as well do the same thing now.

China has a several thousand year history of not getting it's shit together so it might never happen.

China is millenias old and has mostly kept their shit to themselves. That's an example everyone else should follow

They have a long history of failing to concur other areas which is not the same as keeping there shit to themselves.

The military only comes into play under certain circumstances, for instance it gives the US a lot of leeway in Eastern Europe, as long as it acts as a credible counter-balance to Russia. It doesn't have so much of an effect in most of the rest of the developed world. The US is not going to invade Germany or France if they act independently to protect the interests of their citizens. In much of the world, the credibility of US actions matters just as much as brute strength, and that will become more and more the case. And arguably, in many circumstances, strength is better measured through economic leverage than military expenditure.

US still has the occupation forces on German soil since WW2