Wars throughout Time Essay -- essays research papers

Sometime during the course of World War II, the United States became the most antecedentful solid ground in the world. During the last two degree centigrade or so years, the United States has fought ten major wars and innumerable smaller legions actions. For the most part it has been successful, in roughly instances defeating some of the worlds most powerful countries. In other instances it has simply been lucky. A common threat throughout the nations world has been the practice of indifference and neglect. Between wars the Army shrinks to a very small size. Funds and attention almost disappear. This policy of the US Army may easily indeed danger the nations safety in the futureMilitary strength includes not only the Army, but sea and air power as well which will not be considered here. The resources of a country such as population, size, wealth, and factories all contribute to a nations military might and to how fast it might be expanded. Military power for ground forces has traditionally been measured in terms like regi workforcets, brigades, divisions, corps, and armies. In addition, an important notation exists between the Regular Army (the permanent establishment officered with West Point graduates), the militia (very important to the nations military strength for the first hundred years, local part-time units), and the National Guard or Reserves (in modern times a strong back-up to the Regular Army). The combined sizes of these forces drive home fluctuated widely when the nation has been at a threat of war.It was very important that they created an Army during the American Revolutionary War. The colonists had militias, which fought with the British against the French and Indians. But the revolt against England demanded much more. The Americans who wanted license gave it a maximum effort. The population of the colonies barely numbered 3,000,000 in 1775. Of the available manpower, a very large proportion either fought with the British or stayed n eutral. So for an estimated 184,000 men to have fought for the new nation before the war ended in 1783, the remainder had to contribute a lot. (Almanac 209)The new government was disorganized and needed money. Nevertheless, it created the Continental Army. It was organized as infantry in many regiments of about 800 men each. At any one time there were only about 15-20,0... ...ar II was the turning point. The rest of the world started fighting two years before Pearl Harbor. This gave the U.S. the time to expand its Army. It just barely did so (remember the Draft fare passing by one vote). Good fortune and luck allowed the policy of tiny peacetime army to work one more time.The Cold War changed this forever, reinforce by tough lesson in Korea. In the time since then, the state of the world and technology demands that Army not architectural plan a grace period to expand. It has to plan to meet a potential crises with what it has ready. Technology has dropped the need for large numb ers of divisions and fighting troops. But technology has conversely demanded that stockpiles of equipment and training be at superior levels at all times. Future wars will be over long before new orders for weapons like cruise missiles can be placed. The best representation to prepare for the present is to learn and correct our mistakes from the past. The cost may be high, but the world remains a dangerous environment. Today the U.S. must have a ready-to-use Army of a size sufficient for any conflict ahead. This was not always true in the past.