The United States has the world’s greatest military force, and it devotes an astonishing amount of hundreds of billions of dollars, to have, expand, sustain, and to maintain that military force. The ironic thing is that back before America had its independence, one of the facts so enumerated by that Declaration of Independence, was decrying that Great Britain had a standing army in America, without thus having the consent of the legislature of America. While it is true, that the current standing army in America, does at the present time, have the consent of the legislature; the danger, thereof, of having a standing army is just as valid today as it was back when the seeds for our drive to become independent of Great Britain, so existed.
The reason so many people were fearful of a standing army, back in colonial times, and why we have a significant portion of the people that are fearful of the same today, is that it doesn’t much matter what a given Constitution says, or what the rule of law is supposed to represent, if that standing army has the power to get itself involved in all sorts of foreign or even domestic incursions, with dubious justifications for doing so, again and again. So too, standing armies, represent for the people within those nations, of the constant danger of having those that are its actuators, insisting that these standing armies must so be utilized for this or for that, and that this need appears always to be never ending, for there is always something going on somewhere, that attracts their meddling interest.
While it could be said, that standing armies are necessary in the sense of the defense of the nation, as well as to have the requisite capability to utilize such in a just and truly required war – the thing is, that the more monies and resources so devoted to standing armies, the corresponding less of that money will so be allocated to the people as a benefit; such as for necessary infrastructure, education, healthcare, social programs, and the like, of which, it is the people through their payment of taxes that are thus on the hook for paying for those standing armies, in lieu of receiving those other valued benefits, instead. Further to the point, we do so find, that this allocation of money for the military, will impress upon the military to do their level best to justify that the monies and war materials so being provided to them, are seen as being necessary for the defense and safety of the homeland, thus leading these standing armies to view the world as a very dangerous place, indeed, of which, national security thereby demands that they exert their force continuously, wherever they claim such is warranted.
The danger of a standing army is not that it will be used, justifiably; but rather that it will constantly be used in an unjust and unneeded manner for whatever so-called justification which thus serves the purposes of that which directs it; and of which, because that standing army is so often the aggressor against other nations and peoples, this will invariably create tensions, resentment, hatred, and blowback -- that someday must have its own reckoning.