some real great takes here 
I was brought up in a household that was anti military.
Only as an adult was I able to form my own opinion.
Without a strong military in the past we would certainly not be here today and without a strong military now, who knows what other nation might decide to attack our sovereignty.
It's childish to be anti military - it shows you do not understand the interconnectedness of our society - good and bad.
It's disingenuous to ignore the effect the aggression of the cold war and its aftermath had on the current Russian situation.
Bro, I don't know what warped version of reality you live in, but without a strong American military to stand up to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, you'd be speaking Russian right now. Ukraine blew their chance to join NATO as soon as possible like everyone else did when the Cold War ended, and they are now being slaughtered en masse by Russia in their attempts to turn them into their newest southwestern oblast.
As a liberal raised during the backlash to the Iraq War, my attitude towards the Military Industrial Complex has really changed in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s seemingly inevitable invasion of Taiwan. Add in the possibility that the US could be dragged into new wars in the Middle East and even possibly South America, and I really don’t think we have the luxury to say “weapons bad, let’s not build any”.
Being the policeman of the world absolutely sucks. War absolutely sucks. But one of the best ways to prevent China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, etc from saying “might make right, let’s take this land and these resources from our neighbors, since no one can stop us” is for the US to say, “no, we will stop you and we have the will and the tools to easily do it.”
who's responsible for the US choosing to police the world? 
The US is the most benign empire one could wish for. History makes that plain, and just peeking over the fence at contender's tendencies and track record further reinforces that. Easy moral justification backed by actual moral justification.
in honour of all the defense of us atrocities i present to you: the hacker news logo with the fascist "life rune" symbol:
maybe we can get that as an emoji in the same vein as 
Oooh my cracker detector done blew up reading that one. Military industrial techbro scum deserve the collapse that's hurtling towards them, and there will be no empathy in me for them when it hits. Only ugly, contemptuous gut-laughter.
How many countries has China invaded in the past 50 years again?
Vietnam, unfortunately
The Sino-Soviet split and its consequences.
There’s at least one country China has invaded: China! Think about it, where does all of China’s labor and production come from? That’s right. Uncritical support to China in resisting Chinese imperialism.
The US isn't even a benign empire to its citizens living in the imperial core. It frequently murders them with a militarised police force, oppresses its civilian population, has the largest prison population per capita in history (modern?), practices slave labour, rigs its elections and assassinates popular political figures.
can you name another empire that's as good to anglo capital? didnt think so. maybe later kiddo.
British empire?