“What we should do is stay in these places...and (somehow) make them pay for our peace-keeping there.”
If we stay, it will contribute to our economic collapse, which won’t be very much prettier than a military collapse.
...unless we are smart enough to take your suggestion and make them pay for our protection.
Perhaps NATO could assess some sort of fee on its members, based on the number of troops in their countries. The fees could then be transferred to the countries providing the troops.
Indirect enough not to cause nationalistic hard feelings, maybe.
The stimulus package alone cost more than 8 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It also cost more than a decade of peacetime military spending abroad.
Compared to what we spend on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security fraud annually, our peacetime projection of global power overseas is an exceptionally good investment.