Fine. Then pay for it - unfortunately that means taxes will have to go sky-high, or the US electorate will have to collectively mortgage the lives of its children and grandchildren (i.e., sell its children and grandchildren into slavery)...wait, we're already doing that!
Running an empire - official or unofficial - is a very expensive proposition.
Plus, while your government is in the business of figuring out how to control the lives of people beyond its borders, it might get interested in controlling the lives of people within their borders (like you) and forcing them to submit to its definition of "freedom" and "justice."
No, making the world safe for "freedom" and "justice" - what you have advocated, which is nothing less than what a well-known progressive named Woodrow Wilson advocated one hundred years ago, i.e., using the US military and other governmental machinery to "make the world safe for democracy" - doesn't actually make the world free or just. It, much like every other failed left-wing progressive initiative (see eugenics, the income tax, central banking, the EPA, the UN, Homeland Security, and student loans as good examples) in fact achieves the exact opposite of its stated objectives. But...it does feel nice at time, doesn't it?
If you read my post in its entirety, you would realize I am NOT pushing for us to play world police UNTIL we get our financial house in order. We can’t play world police with borrowed money from foreigners.
If, and when, our economy is again prosperous, and our GDP approaches 50% of world GDP, that is when we will be again
in a position to play role of super power. Which means we are
decades away from playing that role.