If Washington ever decides it actually wanted to defend our interest we can quickly rebuild such a force such as we did before world war 2 and every other war prior to that last declared war.”
And our lack of preparation led to untold thousands of American and allied lives lost (Millions if you count those who died in death camps)”
You may be right in that had we been prepared before the war we could have jumped in more quickly. Not that FDR would have done so or even if he was inclined to try.
The truth is you have to try an anticipate problems because you can't always be prepared for everything and in this case being prepared has a huge on going cost and risk that is probably greater than the rare occasion on which that perpetration makes a balancing difference.
For us that risk has just got 10 times higher given the decidedly oppressive and lawless direction our ‘federal Government’ has decided to go in. I think perhaps we can't afford the risk or the costs anymore. It is time to mothball the army, navy and air force. Transfer the bulk of their assets and personnel to the State national guard where members may hold other jobs while retaining most of their skills and usefulness in the event of war or dafter(Hence National guard NOT reserve).
Our states must furthermore take a more assertive control over the guard beauro so that Washington can't simply coop the guard to gratuitously levy war against the states and their people. This means being careful about officer selection, and rather strict about dismissing officers that show inclination to act against us.
The Navy is the only place you have a case to be made but in this case the resources should be focused upon upgrading our existing fleet to modern standards.