What’s the Biggest Fighting Force in the World and How Can it be Stopped?

It would be nice to think that at some point in the history of people the world would progress past a “might makes right” attitude, but thus far, that has not been the case. 

Unfortunately, this dynamic keeps the rank-and-file citizen in a constant clash with leadership and leaves leadership to contemplate how much they can get away with before they’re thrown out on their ears. 

The revolutions of the past have taken several forms, but for Americans, the Revolution was won on the backs of farmers, teachers, and in some cases, basically, kids, standing in a line with their guns in hand, fighting against the greatest army in the world. 

But citizens couldn’t do that again, right? The military is too massive and incomprehensible. Many would (correctly) assume that there was nothing that could be done in the face of a nuclear attack. However, assuming that whoever wanted to take over the United States and bend its citizenry to their will didn’t want to be left with a heap of nuclear waste, Americans are left to consider how they might be able to defend against any military, including its own if push ever again came to shove. 

Newsweek reported on “The 20 Most Powerful Military Forces in the World.” The scores are tallied up in various ways, including their total fighting force, those in active service, military advancements, and their total budget allocated to defense forces. 

Israel rang in at #20 with a total of 643,000 military personnel, 170,000 of which are in active service, and a hefty annual budget of $16.6 billion. 

And because we should probably learn from others’ mistakes and keep an eye on Germany, it’s worth mentioning that they came in at #15 with 215,000 military personnel, and 185,000 of them active. However, it makes up for its smaller fighting force with a bigger budget, which is $57.4 billion. In addition to that, it has 244 tanks at its disposal. 

Iran sits (uncomfortably) at #14. The Middle East country has a mandatory military service of two years and currently has a total of 1,925,000 people in its military, 525,000 of which were active. It has 3,709 tanks, and a budget of $14.1 billion. Rounding out the top 20 are the more common contenders, including France, Spain, South Korea, Japan, and China. 

As for the top two spots, the answer you receive as to who is the best and most powerful might depend on who you ask, but the American sources, of course, say that Russia is #2 and the United States is #1. 

Russia reportedly has a total of 3.5 million people in its military, about 1 million of which are in active service. Russia has access to an incredible 13,000 tanks and a defense budget of $42 billion.

The United States military boasts a whopping 2.2 million people in its military services, with 1.4 million of those in active service. America has 6,100 tanks at its disposal—far less than Russia—but has, by far, the largest defense budget in the world, an eye-watering $740 billion.

To compare that to the sheer fighting force of the armed American citizen, Statistica gives a jumping-off point, reporting that roughly 39 million hunting licenses, tags, and permits to hunt game are issued in the United States. 

Now, it’s safe to assume that some of those hunters might not want to take up arms at the same time as the whole. However, it doesn’t take into account how many family members of the hunter might also be armed and skilled with firearms. Do you know any hunters with just one gun or even one who hasn’t taught their spouse and/or children to shoot? Me either. 

But conservatively, let’s say upward of 35 million armed hunters, presumably not on board with an ultra-progressive cause that would rob them of their ability to hunt game. 

What does that data mean? It means that if just the legal hunters banded together to fight a military that set itself against America, it would be over 10 times bigger than the biggest military in the world. 

However, most of us probably do know someone who has a gun for protection or just to exercise their Second Amendment Rights, that doesn’t hunt. So taking a step further, a survey from Pew, Harvard, and Northeastern indicates that somewhere around 40% of Americans say they or someone in their household owns a gun. That would mean that around 134 million Americans have daily access to a gun. 

But maybe that’s too much, because that includes children and others who maybe shouldn’t operate a firearm. So once again if we attempt to be conservative, let’s just look at those who say they own a firearm, which is about 32% of the population. That means around 81 million Americans have gone out of their way to obtain a firearm, for whatever reason, according to a 2021 National Firearms Survey. 

Presuming that every person who admits to owning a firearm was faced with every tank in the United States Military it would be more than 13,000 firearms against every tank. 

Understandably there are a plethora of variables, including air defense systems from the military, automatic weapons, etc. But those figures also assume that every tank driver and airman is willing to fire on his own home and people, which, if you’ve ever met anyone in the military, seems unlikely. 

So, why should that matter to you? Americans should do everything to avoid civil war possible, right? The number of people who own guns should matter to you because it matters so much to those in power right now.

Of course, everyone who has ever read a history book hopes it doesn’t come to lining up again with farmers and teachers and kids, clutching rifles waiting for those who vowed to protect them to come take their land. But it may be that clutching your guns is the only thing that keeps that from happening.

And just remember these numbers when Joe Biden or some other Democrat politician or media talking head begins trashing your Second Amendment rights. They might be trying to convince you their targets are gangbangers and street criminals or deranged school shooters. But they aren’t.

They’re trying to get a handle on the largest potential armed force in the world, which is also the largest limiting factor to just how far they can go in attacking the other freedoms guaranteed in our constitution.