> Confusing then that the US spends so much on war.
I'm not sure if you bring that up because you think I'm in favor of that particular bit of spending, or what... but for the record, I'm opposed to almost everything we've done under the rubric of "war" (including the "War on Drugs", "War on Terror", "War on Poverty", etc.) since WWII.
Nothing about you personally. You said that Americans do not like subsidizing private industries. I pointed out one glaring couter-example that many, most(?), Americans seem happy enough to subsidize.
So, you think the US should have gone after Germany during WWII? And, not privately run militias?
I think that in a world where we have Nation-States like the US, Germany, etc., that those governments should at least "play by their own rules". That doesn't mean I wouldn't prefer a world without them. In the case of WWII, the point I'm making is that WWII was the last time there was an actual Congressional declaration of war, and perhaps the last time the US government was actually somewhat justified in invoking it's military - at least relative to more recent overseas military actions.
As for private militias... yeah, if a bunch of guys in the US in 1941 had said "Hey, we're going to organize and go help the French and Brits against Germany", I would have had no problem with that.
I'm not sure if you bring that up because you think I'm in favor of that particular bit of spending, or what... but for the record, I'm opposed to almost everything we've done under the rubric of "war" (including the "War on Drugs", "War on Terror", "War on Poverty", etc.) since WWII.