Against the threats made up and real which Big Brother tells you to be scared of.
I was in on 9/11, graduating C school from Great Lakes.
We had a multi-trillion dollar military at the time. Completely unable to prevent a triple attack on US Soil.
In fact it was a group of disorganized civilians who actually prevented it from being much worse.
We dump assloads of money into a giant machine that looks good but doesnt really do what its claimed to.
Did they cut back on the budget?
No.
They just formed a new department, told them to do the job the military was originally supposed to do, mismanaged both departments, then spent years blaming each other on capital hill. While they make money and good men die.
Fucked up system all around.
Thats why I keep voting for DoD cuts and improvements in our schools. We need to redevelop our capital base (young minds) or else we're in deep shit 100 years from now.
The US military in it's state at the time (late 90s, early 00s) was never meant to fight a small compartmentalized group, i.e. terrorist cells. On the other side of the coin, there are 16 different intelligence organizations that have a history of refusing to talk to one another because of turf wars. Each branch of the military has its own intelligence group, on top of the other four agencies in the DoD.
Post cold war the Air Force and the Army lost their mission and began wandering and trying to define themselves in the new world order. In my opinion the Air Force was hit the worst. SAC was a thing of the past, almost overnight because where's the need for a large bomber force when the big bad enemy (vs. smaller more scattered enemies) is no more? What's the point of a 5th generation fighter when everyone who isn't our ally is introducing 4th gen fighters at best. The army took a hit, but more because of the size of it than anything. That and they never modified their training to anticipate the smaller more urban conflicts that would be the new style of warfighting. The Navy was impacted, but on a much smaller scale. The role of the nuclear submarine was thrown into question and still is for the most part. The SSNs serve a role in carrier defense but there's no other blue water navy in the world for them to hunt. The SSBNs have started to be modified into SSGNs for land and fleet attack. Carriers and amphibs are still used for power projection and humanitarian efforts. The Marine Corps role has been changing ever since the 2nd World War. The chances of having to attack a beach head and establish an LZ is probably slim to none these days. Every Marine is a Marine first and foremost. All go through the same indoc system (Boot Camp for Enlisted and OCS/TBS for Officers) and when push comes to shove they all have the same basic skillset.
The true problem is the size of the United States. The borders are too expansive and too varying in terrain to be monitored effectively. Compare the US to Israel. Israel has four (4!) international airports and Ben Gurion is the only major one. The other three see MAYBE 10,000 people each a year. Their land borders are SIGNIFICANTLY smaller than ours and they monitor them as much or more than we do because everyone surrounding them wants them dead. Yet for all of their security they still see suicide bombers within their borders with much greater regularity than the US people can imagine.
The illusion of security in the US is very real. The military is not, nor will it ever be equipped to deal with internal threats unless it is altered at its most basic level. The organization (DHS) tasked with that protection is hampered by legislators, inefficiency, and the sheer magnitude of the task at hand.
I'm pretty sure I just rambled there, but there's a legit thought and sentence every once in a while.