To be clear I’m not necessarily in favor of a large standing military, have very mixed feelings about it. Am giving voice to the part of me that sees the legitimate reasons to want one.

Violence abroad is very different from the threat of violence at home, and my point was in regards to how destabilizing it is for a society to need to anticipate that risk in daily life. In general that risk is low in most developed countries, and I think it would be higher if there wasn’t a hegemonic superpower/that benefit is under-appreciated.

But I get your point. There is definitely a temptation to use a very big army if you have one, and that’s dangerous.