For those who were tuned in Tuesday night, there was a lot to digest coming out of the fourth GOP debate. There was a lot covered, especially in the foreign policy department. What stood out was the lack of unity the Republican candidates had on most of the issues discussed.

Donald Trump was at one extreme, saying that the United States should go ahead and let Vladimir Putin drop bombs on the Islamic State terrorist group. Jeb Bush told him he’s “absolutely wrong.” Then there was Ted Cruz labeling himself as the happy medium.

From the convoluted mess, though, emerged an interesting talking point. Trump may often come off to some like a sideshow at these debates, but he was a catalyst in an important foreign policy conversation.

Should the U.S. continue to be the world’s police force? Can it?

First off, one has to look at the financials.

“In fiscal year 2015, military spending is projected to account for 54 percent of all federal discretionary spending, a total of $598.5 billion,” according to nationalpriorities.org, a website that breaks down federal and state budgets. Folks on the other side of the aisle look at that number and often ask why some of that money isn’t being put in unemployment or health care.

There will be differing opinions on where the money should go if the U.S. was to cut back on military spending. If America could curtail its policing commitments, who would argue, especially coming off Veterans Day, against adding to veterans’ benefits? Veterans’ benefits make up only six percent of the aforementioned discretionary spending projections.

But how realistic is it to back off and expect other countries, like Russia, to pick up the slack? Bush compared Trump’s stance to playing a real-life game of Monopoly, saying that it doesn’t work like that in the real world.

It’s an important conversation to have, even locally, even if a voter is a Democrat or Republican or neither. It’s tough to label oneself fiscally conservative yet support setting aside over half the federal budget for military spending. If the GOP is all over the place right now with this aspect of the foreign policy debate, that’s all right. It brings the issue to the forefront. It starts the conversation.