It's a shame we wasted all that treasure and effort trying to prove that we could take on the Soviets in Europe. We could have had universal health care by now. What the heck. If the Soviets attacked conventionally we would have had only two choices. Better than the 2 1/2 that being able to respond conventionally gave us.
Much of that build up of US forces in Europe was complete before the Soviet Union had a massive arsenal of nuclear weapons. But I grant that there is a better argument to be made for a strong air force being part of a deterrent, though that’s a more sensible and nuanced argument than claiming we need the F-22 so we can be sure to defeat the Chinese/Russians on the battlefield.
If it ever gets to the point where the two air forces come to blows in the skies, it will be almost certainly too late to prevent all out nuclear war — indeed, most Freepers would probably be agitating for the first strike to be ours.