Think about it this way too. We’ve been fighting an aimless meandering war for two decades. Pentagon has used it to justify its budget, but the effect of a war like that on the actual troops kills morale. We were closing recruiting stations even under trump because we can’t find enough recruits. I think that’s part of why recruiting was opened to women to be “woke” but increase manpower. And now under this fucking doofus President, we’re suggesting, and in some cases outright saying, the military is racist and misogynistic so it needs even more women and coloreds. It also apparently needs to be purged of right wing extremists.
So you have that shit, and China is ready to throw down. We have a substandard, un-meritocratic, low morale, bloated, and bureaucratized fighting force ready to stop them?