The current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are being fought without the F-22.
Wars (low-intensity-conflicts) like Iraq and Afghanistan will not be what hands us our ass.
It will be a large-scale engagement like an invation of Taiwan (with accompanying strikes on Japan and US naval interests) that will cripple our nation militarily.
We have to be prepared for future threats, especially in high-intensity conflicts.
For example, both The Army and the USMC have fought for purpose-build armored vehicles like the Cougar for years. Service-leaders and the DOD rejected the plan because they couldn’t envision an occupation like those of today. As a result, we were without suitable vehicles for the first three years. But, we had the time to design, build, budget and buy those vehicles and they’re being fielded now.
If we face a theater-wide war with a country like China, we won’t have the time to talk about building fifth-generation fighters and UAVs. Those are the wars (and tools) that require battle-plans well in advance.