Much of that spending is on behalf of the NATO countries that don't put in their treaty-obligated amounts. The US would still be a huge spender, but somewhat less if the other NATO countries picked up the slack. Similarly, the US military is Japan's military; the US is treaty bound to defend Japan from external threats in exchange for Japan no longer having complete control over their own foreign policy, seeing as said foreign policy was "enslave, rape, and/or murder every last group of people who can't resist the might of Imperial Japan".
Furthermore, spending isn't the same as power. While due to globalization boots are more or less the same price everywhere, it's far more expensive to fill those boots with American feet than Chinese feet. It can cost the US tens of thousand dollars just to train a mechanic, to say nothing of someone that requires extreme amounts of training such as a SEAL or fighter pilot, or even just a sniper.
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@lll111lll
Much of that spending is on behalf of the NATO countries that don't put in their treaty-obligated amounts. The US would still be a huge spender, but somewhat less if the other NATO countries picked up the slack. Similarly, the US military is Japan's military; the US is treaty bound to defend Japan from external threats in exchange for Japan no longer having complete control over their own foreign policy, seeing as said foreign policy was "enslave, rape, and/or murder every last group of people who can't resist the might of Imperial Japan".
Furthermore, spending isn't the same as power. While due to globalization boots are more or less the same price everywhere, it's far more expensive to fill those boots with American feet than Chinese feet. It can cost the US tens of thousand dollars just to train a mechanic, to say nothing of someone that requires extreme amounts of training such as a SEAL or fighter pilot, or even just a sniper.