But if you look at it that way, our military-industrial complex has become so efficient at waging war as a means to profiteering, that all we need are very tiny

But if you look at it that way, our military-industrial complex has become so efficient at waging war as a means to profiteering, that all we need are very tiny wars we can continue to wage forever. In fact this is what is happening. But this continues to bolster my point, which is that our military is less and less prepared to fight a major war. The scary thing is that if a major conflict comes, we are totally unprepared and that's not fixable without rethinking the basics of military equipment and such. Of course this is possible to turn around. The Byzantines managed to do so by cutting military spending during a series of wars they were losing. I think we need to follow their lead but that has tremendous implications on issues like gun control.