[DonQuigleone]

Well being no.1 is certainly a justifiable thing to aim to maintain. And frankly, even if the US cut it's military budget in half it would probably still be no.1. The thing is it would no longer be "hegemon", it would not have sufficient power that it could beat a coalition of other countries. It would need to rely on it's allies a whole lot more. However, I think it's inevitable that the USA will lose it's Superpower status. It happened to Britain, and it happened to the USSR. The USA isn't going to unrivalled forever. And I also think we're beginning to live in an era where Military power is not of as much value as it used to be.

Put it this way, the US doesn't really need a huge defense apparatus to ensure it's own safety, they've got Nukes for that. The military apparatus does defend US "Interests", but I think there needs to be a firm line delineated between the two. For instance it's in the US's interests to ensure a cheap Oil supply, but it doesn't really effect the US's safety one way or another.

Also, the principle of proportionality needs to also be maintained. For instance, the terrorism scares of the early 2000s certainly merited improvements in counter-terrorism operations etc., but did they really merit the invasion and occupation of an entire country? Terrorist acts are on the scale of individuals, while the invasion was on the scale of nations.