Are U.S. taxpayers getting good value for that expenditure?

NO. The USA should QUIT the Middle East.

The U.S. gets only around 10% of its net oil and natural gas from the region.

David Vine:

With the launch of a new US-led war in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State (IS), the United States has engaged in aggressive military action in at least 13 countries in the Greater Middle East since 1980. In that time, every American president has invaded, occupied, bombed, or gone to war in at least one country in the region. …

As in prior military operations in the Greater Middle East, US forces fighting IS have been aided by access to and the use of an unprecedented collection of military bases. …

In the Persian Gulf alone, the US has major bases in every country save Iran. …

Members of Congress spend billions of dollars on base construction and maintenance every year in the region, but ask few questions about where the money is going, why there are so many bases, and what role they really serve. By one estimate, the United States has spent $10 trillion protecting Persian Gulf oil supplies over the past four decades. …

On their own, the existence of these bases has helped generate radicalism and anti-American sentiment. …

Mother Jones – America Still Has Hundreds of Military Bases Worldwide. Have They Made Us Any Safer?

David Vine, associate professor of anthropology at American University in Washington, D.C. He is the author of Island of Shame: The Secret History of the US Military Base on Diego Garcia.

The USA has about an $18 trillion dollar debt. Canada, by comparison, will run a surplus budget this year,