A strong conventional force can in many cases reduce the chances of a war, and reduce the chances of a nuclear exchange.
There is no evidence to support this, and unfortunately for this narrative, the US already has a ridiculously strong conventional force. I don't think I need to post the wall of statistics about how much more bloated our military is compared to the rest of the world, including how many more aircraft carriers, bases, and logistics we have.
Instead of all of that bringing us peace, we′ve instead been at perpetual war for at least two decades and came out the other side with nothing to bring home to the American people for all the money and lives spent.
China being fully aware they will not win a conventional naval war with the US reduces the chances they'll miscalculate and do something stupid. The US having the conventional means to deter China means countries in the region themselves won't need to start building nuclear weapons to defend themselves.
This is a giant broken window fallacy that can be used to give the DoD infinite amounts of money without ever having to justify it. That's dangerous. ″China didn't nuke us, see? Give another trillion or else they will″
No, there needs to be an adult in the room.
I mean, we have the money for all of this.
According to 50％ of the country, we don't. We have to beg and plead to fund public Healthcare and public infrastructure and public goods. Why should the military be exempt?
The idea US military spending is why people are dying from preventable diseases or why we haven't done all that much to address climate change is bizarre.
Opportunity costs; money is fungible. Every 50k that goes into a missile to blow up a shack in the desert is 50k less for feeding people via SNAP, as example.
But if China decides they can invade Taiwan, or the surrounding countries and the US isn't in a position to prevent that, we probably won't need to worry about climate change all that much.
Even with vastly more firepower and better technology the US couldn't prevent the Taliban from regaining power in Afghanistan, so the notion that it's the military and not soft power or economy that keeps China at bay seems absurd. If China wants to end the world over an island, they'll do it regardless of how many more next gen stealth fighters we build.