besides sustaining the arms industry, pentagon thinkers have the prevailing strategy of relying on allies and proxies to shoulder the burden of global defense (and offense if necessary). as the de facto successor of the british empire after ww2, strategic choke points, listening posts, shipping lanes and buffer zones have to be manned and maintained for the continuance of western prosperity based on the anglo-dutch-american model of ocean ownership and dominance. that model goes way back to the days of the spice trade when dutch guild warships dominate the seas followed by the british east india company operating as the navy of her royal highness. portuguese, spanish and french fleets were not part of the anglo-saxon kinship and thus must be curtailed and decimated. competition was a bitch. there was even violent competition between dutch and english in their quest for nutmeg monopoly among the banda chain of islands. (i highly encourage you to pay a visit. it's lovely and idyllic there.)
it was no mystery to the germans pre-ww1 that the british navy had secured almost all the important choke points and ports of call in sea and ocean routes on the planet: gibraltar, suez, ceylon (sri lanka), rangoon, malacca, singapore, cape town, jamaica, hawaii, falklands, present day diego garcia (still a british protectorate), hong kong, and entire coasts of canada, australia and nz. it was a formidable empire of global and oceanic proportions.
america after ww2 became the new guardian of these routes and was handed over the keys except for a few locations not worth the investment, for example, cape town, rangoon, malacca, gibraltar, ceylon, falklands. singapore, however, is still a strategic choke and hub for both regional and inter-oceanic (indo-pacific) commerce and trade. oil happened to be more lucrative and important than spice, and the same anglo-dutch-american dominance over shipping and commerce (and banking as a result of the wealth) was a natural fit for the oil trade. bp, shell, exxon, chevron, conocophillips are household names today for a reason.
how did sg become a bitch of the u.s.? the saga continues....