I would think that as strategic as it may be, when there is little to no immediate adversary to fend of, that in a war time situation it is likely very vulnerable, with no other immediate assets near to it. My guess is if it is so strategic, because we have made it that way, it would be a very early target of a determined adversary. Too bad we and India have had such lousy relations over the decades that we cannot just have a base in southern India.
We tried to but they got scammed out of it by a fake indian call center.
Or why have a base at all? We are basically un-invadable and cannot be subdued in any sense with a nuclear deterrent and an armed populace. It’s the same reason China, India, Russia, etc cannot be invaded and subdued. It’s a zero sum game and we are all playing like it is WWII. If we closed just 1/2 to 3/4 of out overseas bases and minded our own business we could take care of some of this debt, fix our social safety string, and in the long run reduce taxes and the MIC.
It isn’t strategic because we made it that way, it is strategic because of geography and the present state of technology.