How many American lives have been saved because we have been in the middle east fighting and destroying Islamic terrorists? Thousands.
Ignoring Islamic terrorist groups won't make them go away. We tried that under Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama and 9/11 and rise of ISIS was the result.
And if we had never had a continuing presence there in the first place? Why did we go to Iraq in the early 90s? What other battles and wars beforehand we were part of? Why did we go to Mogadishu?