I don't think it is that, government just gets too big for its own good and it sees the need to involve itself in everything. And the impressive thing is that we somehow did not get involved in Rwanda, where a weak military force (RPF) stopped a 800K genocide. We missed that one.
I'll Extrapolate on this, the US is almost at seven times the size of the 2nd largest military in the world.... We can cut 400 billion easily from our defense budget. It would help the US in the long-term. In this economy we can not sustain such a crazy amount of spending.
This thread makes me wonder how fast Maris' space ship can travel from Stonehenge to the Grassy Knoll.
Then, of course, there's this gem out of China... http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-first-aircraft-carrier-begins-sea-trials-080055956.html