In a ways you couldn't blame them. At the time, Canada was still very much a British territory and the British, in addition to supplying and arming non-friendly Native Americans, blockading trade between the US and France (granted the two countries were at war... as usual) and openly insulting the US for their seeming inability to protect their interests at sea.
To put this into perspective, this would be like China arming and supplying socialist radical groups in the US, blockading US trade routes to Asia, raiding US cargo ships and enslaving the sailors, and then the Chinese press proclaiming how inferior the US Navy was. How do you think the US as a whole would react?
But this is all digressing from the matter at hand.
EDIT: I decided to crunch some numbers just to see what perspective we should see our 'Standing Army' in.
I left out the Navy and the Coast Guard since you, khagler, deem them as necessary. I only counted active duty personnel from the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps.
I then divided that number into the total population of the USA (Disclaimer: this figure is as of the 2012 Census).
The number I came up with... isn't all that impressive.
For every 288 civilians... we have a single, full time, active duty soldier/marine/airman.
So, sure. We maintain a standing army. And it seems impressive at first glance (just over 1 million men). But then you look at the fact there's over 300 million US Citizens and then it most people, even foreigners, realize it's nothing special in relation to the size of our population.
But then, I guess that in your worldview that a standing army of even ten people is a bad thing. And maybe, just maybe, in some alternate version of earth that doesn't have things like radical fundamentalists (of any stripe) we wouldn't need it. But unfortunately, we do, so there you go.
Oh, and North Korea and Iran would absolutely love it if we disbanded our standing army. Because with them would also go a vast majority of the support that the UN Peace Keeping Forces need. Sure, things would be quiet for a while... until suddenly all of Isreal turns into a radioactive crater and Seoul and Tokyo cease to exist in any meaningful way.
So.... tell me why getting rid of our standing army is a good idea?
To put this into perspective, this would be like China arming and supplying socialist radical groups in the US, blockading US trade routes to Asia, raiding US cargo ships and enslaving the sailors, and then the Chinese press proclaiming how inferior the US Navy was. How do you think the US as a whole would react?
But this is all digressing from the matter at hand.
EDIT: I decided to crunch some numbers just to see what perspective we should see our 'Standing Army' in.
I left out the Navy and the Coast Guard since you, khagler, deem them as necessary. I only counted active duty personnel from the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps.
I then divided that number into the total population of the USA (Disclaimer: this figure is as of the 2012 Census).
The number I came up with... isn't all that impressive.
For every 288 civilians... we have a single, full time, active duty soldier/marine/airman.
So, sure. We maintain a standing army. And it seems impressive at first glance (just over 1 million men). But then you look at the fact there's over 300 million US Citizens and then it most people, even foreigners, realize it's nothing special in relation to the size of our population.
But then, I guess that in your worldview that a standing army of even ten people is a bad thing. And maybe, just maybe, in some alternate version of earth that doesn't have things like radical fundamentalists (of any stripe) we wouldn't need it. But unfortunately, we do, so there you go.
Oh, and North Korea and Iran would absolutely love it if we disbanded our standing army. Because with them would also go a vast majority of the support that the UN Peace Keeping Forces need. Sure, things would be quiet for a while... until suddenly all of Isreal turns into a radioactive crater and Seoul and Tokyo cease to exist in any meaningful way.
So.... tell me why getting rid of our standing army is a good idea?