Originally Posted by
fisharmor
All of the founders hated standing armies - or so they said. I don't quite believe it, considering the current US army traces its roots back to before the formation of the US as a country, and whether or not that's technically true, it IS technically true that the current US Army was created prior to the adoption of the Constitution.
They put language in the Constitution that was supposed to disband any army after 2 years, they put language in the Constitution that named the militia explicitly as the tool that would defend the country, and yet here we are, never having not had a standing army.
If the current army goes back to 1784, and the 1789 constitution stated that specific army was not to have funding that lasted more than 2 years, then in at least one respect, the US Constitution failed the second it was ratified.