You don't want an army - you want mercenaries!
Let me start by making it very clear that, within the context of the Constitution of the united States of America, the federal government has absolutely NO power to maintain a standing army. A navy - yes. But not an army. Don't believe me? Let's take a look at Article I, Section 8,beginning and Clauses 12 and 13:
beginning: The Congress shall have the power:
12: To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;
13: To provide and maintain a navy;
If you think about it, this actually DOES make sense. There's only two reasons that you need an army … you're being attacked … or you're in the process of attacking someone else. [Yes, I'm sure that someone will want to jump in and say something along the lines of, “Wait! If we didn't have an army, someone else might want to attack us!” Uh-huh... Really? And how, exactly, do you think that an attacking army would get here, never mind land and invade and take over, huh?]
A navy, however, is necessary in order to protect shipping and transportation (overseas). Heck, I might even be willing to be convinced that an air force is necessary (given the air transportation technology), although, even there, I think that it would need, at the very least, an amendment in order to keep a standing air force.
However … let's start with a basic idea that I hope everyone will agree with – the entire purpose of a military is to protect the people to whom they are devoted. So, by obvious example, a military for the united States is intended to protect the citizens of the united States.
I'm continually troubled by seeing comments (and other sorts of ideas, etc.) that say that the people in [name some foreign country] are being assaulted … or subjugated … or otherwise tormented … AND it is imperative that we send our military to assist and protect them! Um... Excuse me??? Sending our military to protect them does absolutely NOTHING to protect people here.
Yes, yes - I'm sure you're about to get all pissy about “but … how can we let those people be injured and killed and not do something about it?” Fine - if you really feel that it's that important, I strongly suggest you go out and purchase some weapons and travel to that country to devote yourself to protecting them. Oh, wait … you have no interest in doing that, do you?
Uh-huh... Instead, you want someone else to do that. And, after all, since we already have that nice standing military (which - if you'll recall from above, shouldn't exist in the first place), we might as well use them for something, huh?
Except, part of what's keeping that military standing and in existence in the first place is the ongoing taxes instilled by the federal government (not to mention all the money being borrowed as well).
So... you don't really want an army … nope ... you want mercenaries.
That's right … you don't want a military that will be protecting you and your friends and family. You want a military that can be paid to go and fight a battle that you think is important. Pretty much, by definition, that's what mercenaries are.
[originally written 07MAY14.]