re: #123 lawhawk

Let’s hold a seance and find out.

[snip]

They’d be amazed at the military prowess of the country, and the vast industrial capacity that came into existence as well as the technological sophistication now in place.

[snip]

No, both federalist and anti-federalist would be aghast at the military prowess of the country. That’s the one piece that nobody notices.

Large and powerful standing armies are discussed frequently. The risks and dangers of such are described, and the certainty that those risks and dangers are likely lead every one of the writers to condemn the thought of a large and powerful standing military in the US.

And what’s somewhat frightening is that they were right. Many of the things they dreaded are here.

Thing is, I’m not sure what sort of nation we’d have, if any, if we hadn’t formed that military. The ACW was the last “militia” type army, and even then it was larger than the founders intended. Possibly WWI and certainly WWII would have been quite different had we not been involved.

But they wrote against a large standing military, and many of their fears turn out to be valid.