I have to agree with you on the training of the militia being of great importance. I think returning to the pre-WBTS militia which was not much more than a social club would make it meaningless.

As for wars requiring a lot of manpower. I think the mercenary force can provide that supplement. The need for huge forces is usually due to the need to project power in foreign theatres - something a militia is not designed to do, that's a given.

But, watching Thomas Barnett's Blueprint presentation where he talks about the US being, in effect, a big club that can be used to hammer evil doers.... I came realize, one could argue that we have an all-volunteer force now that acts as a mercenary force to others already. Our current fulltime military is sent all over the place to break things and kill people. We are not just consumers of such a force, we are in essence providers of that service. So, the fact that we can provide merc services with an all volunteer service now tells me we would not likely have much difficulty with manpower in the future.