Thanks for reading and commenting.

I believe you will find that in all cases where the US still has troops stationed overseas, the countries in question have requested US to stay. Germany, Japan, Korea, Philipines, etc. Having a large US troop presence provides stability to the foreign country, at little to no cost to the foreign country.

When the foreign country asks the US to leave, we get the heck out of dodge. Ecuador, Iraq, etc

So I stand by the point of a foreign policy that is not focused on grabbing land.

Compare to Russia and Ukraine, China and Taiwan, China and Tibet, Pakistan and Kashmir, etc