Why is it so hard to believe that we could have kicked the crap out of them if we would have wanted to? They only BECAME a threat after the left sold us out and screwed us over, losing our position of strength and technical superiority. That took at least 2 years.
We had the men and the equipment there and in place, and supply lines that were established.
BTW, the left sold out the US back in the 1920s with such pieces of nonsense as the Kellog-Briand agreement.
The more I read about what the Progressives were doing the more I'm convinced that the Republicans had been undermined by these guys.