Quote Originally Posted by wm View Post
Ken,
I'd like to hope that our volunteer forces will give us that year in a future major conflict. However, 2 potentially significant differences from the two wars in your list that may have been life threatening to the US as a nation (the 2 World Wars--Korea and VN were neither direct or indirect threats to the continued existence of the American way of life) make me worry.
I'd argue that none of the wars I listed including the two world wars were life threatening to the US but that's another thread.
1.) Today's technology no longer allows the US to rely on the defenses to its national industrial base provided by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. US industrial infrastructure could be immediately at risk for attack in a future major conflict. Rebuilding destroyed factories is quite a bit harder than retooling them I believe.
It is, of course. However the sheer number and dispersion of them (factories) in a nation this size makes that a somewhat daunting prospect for any potential adversary.
2.) The US all volunteer force is currently the only thing protecting the nation. ... not in some low level skirmishes against poorly trained and equipped irregulars or third rate national armies. ...the difference being that we would not have another country's army to cover us while we recover from our mistakes. (Emphasis added / kw)
I think you sell this Army short. The part in bold denigrates a lot of folks who may be smarter than some seem to think. I also suggest that adequate warning of a potential major adversary, even given the sad state of the IC today, is very highly probable -- enough so that I'm comfortable with it. YMMV

Uh, wm, you aren't going all Euro-centric and north German Plain or Fulda Gap on me are you???