The thing you'll have to understand that the world is as peaceful as it is because the US has enforced what is essentially a 'trade or else' geopolitical policy.
Yes, it is but the thing you must realize is that it isn't just the U.S. enforces this Europe, South America and even many of the U.S. enemies help in this because war and lack of trade doesn't really benefit us alone.
If you don't want the world to start looking like Strangereal where there is a world war every fucking decade (mostly over resources because let's face it, international trade has been historically finicky to start with as the conditions for it are rather specific)
It's weird that you mention Strangereal because their lack of a single superpower is because all of the countries in that world are pretty equal in military tech, not due to a lack of any of them trying to be Superpowers. (Belka, Osea, Yuktobania.)
The U.S. can't be a single unchallenged superpower forever no matter how much we spend, we may maintain a small advantage here and their but the fact is that the days of the 90's were the U.S. was unchallenged as a Superpower is raidly changing and in it's place is a system of regional great powers that are rising with the U.S. only holding a slight advantage as the lead one as this gap closes.
you'll have to widely expand the military just to ensure that
A military's infantry size has nothing to due with a deterent's these days with the exception of deterring a direct neighbor with a similar tech base or sized army. For instance Russia isn't deterred by U.S. infantry in Poland rather their Nukes, Bombers and Fighters, they are more afraid of those types of things because NATO already has more than enough land personnel to stomp them into the dirt as well as a population to conscript from if needed.
Especially as Putin and Associates in Russia will want to see this policy to be destroyed so they can go back to the 'glory days of the USSR'.
Russia Is boxed in with no realistic target to grab other than Belarus as they won't risk invading Ukraine any further than they already have for fear of provoking a response and it' not like we weren't aware of Putin's ambitions before this.
If that geopolitical policy dies, then we'll have WW3... and WW4... and WW5... and oodles of regional conflicts.
Political policy and reality are two different thing's and the reality here is that the U.S. despite what anybody thinks isn't
regaining the overwhelming edge we had in the mid-90's over other countries, no matter the amount we spend. The world order is shifting as more great powers are rising and the gap between them and the U.S.'s superpower status narrow's so more regional wars are coming as a inevitability the only thing we can do is maintain what edge we can.
So, in the grand scheme of things, we'll need more ships, more soldiers, more sailors, more marines, more pilots, more tanks, and oh so much more. That and well-funded intelligence services both foreign and domestic.
I agree but like I said before unless you raise taxes you might as well hand Russia/China the key's because the biggest military in the world won't avail you if in a generation the U.S. dies from cancer.
Are we? The Cold War has been crippling for other western militaries as they've become reliant -on- the US military to do the heavy lifting
I am not advocatign a complete withdraw from NATO here only a withdraw of Land Forces. The Bomber's, ICBM umbrella and Naval forces stay and deter and the European land forces were designed to stall Russia until we arrive and that was before we had Eastern Europe.
Gone are the days of fields being filled with our men tooting their horns and banging the drums, what we have now are expendable buffer blobs that wait until the Americans come along.
I know this I am counting on it.
I mean, have you seen the state of some of our militaries? Some barely out-populate a single town,
Which are you referring to in particular?
some literally don't have an armed forces
Let's face it Andora, Vatican City, Monaco and Liechtenstein weren't going to be a major help military wise in any world, the same can be said of Iceland.
and some are so underbudgeted that they use brooms, fucking brooms as compensation for the lack of missile-loaded helicopter pics they can take.
To be fair that incident happened five years ago and between Trump's election and the Russian's alleged activites and involvement in almost every home in the world I am sure the German Military has somewhat shaped up in that time if only in regards to better logistical preparation the incident did humiliate them internationally after all.
As for the thread question... Hm... I'd probably say enough to patrol and secure the borders of their homeland and external territories while keeping a "No-Man's Land" in the budget in case things need to be ramped up as in theory it could provide some economic leeway before money from other governmental divisions needs to be redirected. To sum up, think of it like an extendable stick, it's extended out enough to be a potent whacker but can be stretched out more should you need more leverage.
I agree.