Our founders did not give us a standing army. They gave us militias.
They did not give us a military machine to rule the world with.
they did mot give the MIC which sucks up about 1/2 of our tax revenue.
At the time of the war of 1812 we still had militias virtually no formal army.
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Your history is a bit off...
The Founders gave us the Continental Army...briefly disbanded it following our independence because of their fear of a standing army having too much power...then reinstated it in 1790...then disbanded it again briefly before bringing it back permanently because of the War of 1812.
This progressive notion that we can operate with a greatly diminished military at this time and place in history baffles me quite frankly. Are you people not seeing the same thing I am? We have serious issues with Islamic extremists and counter to the Obama "narrative" that we have decimated that threat, events in Libya and other countries around the globe belie that fact. I wish that we COULD spend more money on "butter" rather than "bullets" but given the situation we find ourselves in, massive cuts to our defense capability seems ill advised at best.