Photo: Naval Airpower

[Clames]

73. Laughable still.

All that butter spending...

No...that was guns spending. We weren't building cars, people weren't spending (saving of as much earned income as possible was considered very patriotic during this period), and 40% of the GPD was defense spending. And we didn't have a massive transportation infrastructure at the time we mobilized...that came much later. After the war in fact. I don't know what books you have been reading but you need to do much better. I'll even let you take a look at the two footlockers of personal and period documents from my grandfather and great-grandfathers who were a Captain and General (respectively) during the war. One was a personal friend of Patton and I have several of the letter shared between them. Nothing like firsthand source documents ya know...

This is why the Founding Fathers were largely against a large, permanent standing army - it breeds arrogance.

No arrogance there, just a simple fact. Do you honestly believe that the current generation could be mobilized as readily as the generation 70 years past? The willingness to ration and give up on everyday durable goods to support a war effort? Wouldn't even come close to happening today. People like to whine and bitch about their first world problems too much and can't even bear the thought of being deprived of their Starbucks...