USA | United states of America

I get what you're saying, the US military is not really proportionately impressive to its budget and is historically terrible at winning wars, but that's also not the point of it. The US has an entire hegemony to show for its military force, and even if it isn't impressive in terms of conventional warfare, it has been used brutally and effectively to subdue challenging political and decolonial movements globally; there's a reason they have it and support it beyond reason. They don't need to win wars to maintain that power, they just need to be able to wield enough violence to kneecap anything that threatens them and discourage anyone else that may try in the future.

I'm not saying this in support of the US military (obviously), but to caution against minimizing the destructive potential of this institution. Look at the death it causes with even a short conflict, how much they're able to throw away frivilously. I think a lot of people are starting to forget how one-sided and brutal the so-called "War on Terror" was, which means they ignore just how destructive even their losses are.