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If we didn't keep international order someone else would, and I doubt they would be as benevolent as we are. Most of the time, we haven't fought wars because the US is, as you so inartfully and incorrectly put it, "whipping out its military dick". There have been some mistakes - failing to put in a strong leader in Iraq, insisting on de-Baathification and favoring the Shia all led to the insurgency, for example - but we are, for good or ill, the only power in the world with the military might and the will to intervene in these matters. The reason why other countries don't spend on defense and don't end up in wars is largely because we do it for them.

Furthermore, if you count insignificant operations like Grenada, then no decade in US history has passed without military intervention. After our Revolutionary War ended, we ended up in war with the Barbary Pirates, the War of 1812, the Seminole Wars, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War, the Philippines War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, the Iraq War, Libya and now (probably) Syria. Iran or North Korea might be next.

I would also note that you are WRONG on your timing. Grenada happened in 1983, after the Marine barracks bombing, and was seen as an attempt to deflect criticism from the bombing. It happened about a month after the bombing.

And apparently you didn't consider much my final line of "the alternatives aren't too cheery either." I understand the rationale for many of the actions, but some of them are rather deplorable. It's a brutal, nasty world, yes, and sometimes there is a need for military intervention. That it has to happen is rather depressing, no?