TIL Second largest air force in the world is US NAVY , first being USAF .

Yeah you’re right, it isn’t funny. You are so unbelievably huge, but what’s hard to understand is when will you stop? I’m not trying to diss you or your country personally, but the government cares 100x more about your army than the healthcare of your citizens. Other countries are going towards free healthcare, and countries such as the U.K. and Canada have had free healthcare for decades.

Other countries are trying to not focus on military. At the end of the day, us humans are never going to be able to find peace with one another - that’s just how we are. But the arsenal North America has is so unbelievably large, and quite frankly it’s unneeded. Yes, you can boast about your assets, but how often can you use them? When the USA isn’t ‘freeing’ countries so they can use their oil, what else do they do?

And for the more in-depth things - the army isn’t even that good to be honest. The equipment is top-notch, and I don’t doubt the ability of soldiers, sailors and airmen, but when you look at history, let’s say, from when the USA entered WW2 in 1942 up to the present day - just looking at the surface of this history I see:

•overrated in WW2 (not taking away the fact that the equipment and man power was a great help, but when it comes to the individual you can see that the US really weren’t that good - most of the intense battling in Africa was fought by the British and the commonwealth; after DDay American forces met little resistance in relative terms to the British and Canadians; the first near-successful attempt to cross the Rhine was Market Garden (british but with American paratrooper support (I think it was the 101st that couldn’t hold their bridge - this being a major factor to the failure of the operation); American troops found themselves in a stalemate at the Battle of the Bulge and British troops had to be reassigned to help (I’m not taking away the lives that USA lost, just that it was the British that meant that American ranks weren’t as thinned our, and this gave American commanders to actually do something); the Americans didn’t have support from Australia, India and other commonwealth countries in Asia because it was actually American supporting them. American forces weren’t that good in Asia to start off with, but their gained experience and got better, however it was still the incompetence of the USA leaders that got so many men killed in Asia compared to commonwealth forces.

•failed in Korea after Chinese and Russia support to northern Korea

•‘won’ the space race (even though the USSR did EVERYTHING before USA other than put a man on the moon)

•nearly caused nuclear war (alongside the USSR) because of Cuba (even though the USSR was doing what the USA had done in Turkey)

•failed miserably in Vietnam (mainly due to lack of experience)

•the Persian golf war was a success with (note that it was a coalition, not just the US) but Saddam Hussein remained in power

•the second golf war is also considered successful (note that there was help from other countries) and the US started gradually reducing their troop numbers.

I do admit that your military is much much better than what it was, and it’s definitely a force you don’t want to go against, but it’s time for your government to realise you’re the best in the world, and now you need to start looking after your own. Again this is not a dig at you, but it’s getting to a point in the current age where people are getting sick of Americans claiming that their the dogs bollocks. Especially when you can’t even sort your own country out first.

/r/todayilearned Thread Parent Link - nationalinterest.org