&gt; <i>We killed the draft and a generation has been inoculated with the attitude military service is for poor people without other options. ... Fewer and fewer people serve.</i><p>The US hasn&#x27;t been militarily threatened since the end of WWII, nearly four generations ago. Put the US in a realistically threatened position and watch the numbers swell.<p>And while the personnel count is lower than it has been for a few decades, the budget is still phenomenally large. For example, the US has as many aircraft carriers as the rest of the world combined, and their smallest carrier is bigger than everyone else&#x27;s bar Russia&#x27;s single vehicle. Given that you have to get over giant oceans to even start to demonstrably threaten the US...<p>Rumours of the US&#x27;s impending military demise are greatly exaggerated.