I see your point. I am not interested in being the world's cop. Question is, can we be the world's most powerful nation with the ability to project power where ever needed to protect American interests (sometimes stability alone is in our interests) without being the world's cop? Maybe the answer to that is no.

I do take this article with a bit of a grain of salt - people such as the authors have a natural incentive to keep the country on edge about the military. But it also doesn't seem totally outlandish - our military has to be geared towards anti-insurgency more than conventional big-military vs big-military wars. We haven't been in such a war since the early '50s (I am not counting Gulf War I as one, although I think you could). So it follows that we might have some restructuring to do.

Imperfect as the US is, assuming Trump does not somehow become the first American fascist dictator (a bet I'm willing to make), I do think the US is the indispensable nation. Not that we're superior human beings, but we strive for superior ideals - that's who we are. Letting our military atrophy too far leaves a door open to Russian or Chinese aggression that I'd rather try to keep closed (even with Crimea, Russia could have taken that aggression far further than they did - it was us standing in the way of that, just by virtue of what we are capable of).

It also further motivates sentiments like the European desire for its own joint military (because they worry that one day we could be an antagonist, or simply abandon them). Great, let them share the burden, many say. Again, maybe. But Trumpism and international nationalism on the rise, mixed with a new emphasis on militarism all over - I mean, we just celebrated the 100th anniversary of the end of WW I, and we are moving along the very path that led to WW I. I worry about that more than I worry about the world over the years taking us for granted, which is really what you're saying IMO.

Silver lining of Trump - if we can be rid of him and his poisonous nationalism in 2 years, the world may not be as quick to take us for granted. They're getting a glimpse now of the US as bully rather than shining city on the hill.