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>>>>>>1. Any standing military force aside from the Navy is unconstitutional.

Our constitution would have long ago ceased to matter if we had not bothered defending it. The US has been attacked by The British in The War of 1812 and would have been conquered quite easily if we had not raised a defense beyond the local militias. The combat effectiveness of militias was demonstrated at The Battle of Bladensburg. The British satirically referred to this battle as "The Bladensburg Races" because the American militiamen ran from the field of battle so rapidly, that the British Regulars were unable to catch them and shoot them all.

>>>>>>2.The private sector could provide heavy-weapons regional defense better than the government.

The Wiemar Republic tried hiring mercenaries. Several outfits known as "Free Korps" operated in the late 20's and early 30's. They often consisted of criminals and vagabonds. They were a training ground for Hitler's Brown-shirts.

>>>>>>3. Even if the military were both efficient and constitutional, a standing military is a threat to our liberty, as has been proved in US history.

Negative. No US Army unit has ever marched into Washington DC and overthrown an elected US President. No ruler in US history as been the moral equivalent of a Barracks Emporer.

As for the validity of free secession, this is ridiculous. The modern US would have been split into six or seven small, second-world nations. These countries would be weak, disorganized and subjugated by any thug who felt like marching up the turnpike. The size in strength of the US is part of the reason that we can afford to be a lot less tyrannical than other nations who face far worse problems with vastly fewer resources.

>>>>>>>4. As the military is a government outfit, it can never be efficient. Indeed, as Ludwig von Mises showed, the US military, being a purely socialist government monopoly, can never know how much money it should have or spend, can never have a good idea how much its operations should cost.

Enron was extremely efficient. We should promote Ken Lay to Lt. General. As for the military not knowing how much running a tank or a Bradley costs, this is ignorance. An armored brigade is assigned a finance section that can tell you how much fuel the brigade burns a day, how much it costs to haul each tank by rail, how much it costs to outfit any sized sub-element with MRE's down to the penny, etc,etc, ad nauseum. Should they be unable to provide this information easily and effortlessly during the next IG inspection, the Colonel running that Brigades Logistics shop would become a former military officer.

we don't owe the military anything of the sort......because our freedoms were won by the founders and written into law by them....

Is this article a joke or is the author really that stupid?

Our freedoms are "Written into law", are they?

I'm sure that would have meant a lot to these guys:

The private sector, were it allowed to provide regional defense without government interference, would be more efficient, more effective, safer, and would never have incentive to engage in social engineering, nor in murderous foreign-policy adventurism and the consequent creation of bitter enemies around the world.

Replace our military with rent-a-cops...........hmmm, what a novel idea ;-)