You’d have a point if you made this comment 15 years ago, but Russia invaded Ukraine 10 years ago. Around the same time, China started to make outlandish claims on the South China Sea.

You can make a lot of complaints about the defense industry like waste and corruption, but a lack of a clear objective is no longer an issue.

This is an absurdity. The US did counterinsurgency brush fires and that's it since major combat operations ended in Iraq. Go look at Ukraine. THAT is what "being at war" looks like, and you should be thankful we haven't been forced to do that for 30 years.

The objective is the same for every superpower in the world: to try and establish military hegemony and retain it for as long as possible.