How prepared is America for war?

Eisenhower warned about the "Military-industrial" complex - but it seems to me that has morphed into a "Military-Industrial-Political" which is geared more towards enhancing shareholder value and political capital rather than military preparedness.

I don’t think the States has ever been ready for a real war before it started. Am reading Pogue’s Marshall biography and they certainly weren’t ready before ww ii. I’m not sure any country has been really prepared, as they were organized for the previous war if at all. And nobody is or can be organized for a nuclear exchange.

The States, like other superpowers can do a tremendous amount of damage. If they can survive the initial exchange is another question and I’m not sure any country can make tech weapons in enough quantity. And the States lacks the will to suffer mass casualties in a ww ii style shootout, nor can they easily apply manpower offshore.

Rommel and others are supposed to have said "God is on the side of the big battalions."

Probably a better saying would be "God is on the side of the big manufacturers."

All warfare is very, very wasteful. If you can't replace those broken weapons of yours quickly, you will be destroyed by the guy whose manufacturing capacity is greater than yours and who can replace his.

The US of 2023 is not the US of 1942. Did you know that Japan had about 3 or 4 times the number of Carriers at the start of WW2? (IIRC, 10 or 11 Japanese as against 3 American ones) Less than four years later, the US had about 40 but the Japanese weren't able to replace their sunk ones like the US could. So they had NONE left.

The US of 1942 in today's world is China, who have a HUGE manufacturing capacity. The US should behave until they have at least 10-20 years of rebuilding back the US manufacturing capacity to match the Chinese manufacturing capacity.