Reagan completed the destruction of the office begun by Nixon. Oddly it was a Republican - Eisenhower - who warned about the dangers of the unholy marriage of military and industry. Reagan wiped his ass on this principle.
Result - since MILIND needs to consume fear and convert it into targets, when the targets are all taken we go looking for new targets. So we manufacture struggles like Vietnam and Iraq out of whole cloth, and wonder why things go wrong. Either that, or beat the shit out of Panama or Grenada. No Hilters are left to actually fight, and freedom is not at stake (unless you live here), so imaginary crises must be constantly stirred up to justify the spending. Who cares if the Bosnians and Serbs savage each other? It's just a body count.
Consequence - instead of cementing a relationship with the former Soviet Union and eastern bloc, we gloat - GLOAT - about how noble was our purpose and keep stirring shit everywhere instead of actually trying to make peace and freedom work.