The Existential Threat

In 1985, at the height of the cold war, the soviet army had 5.3 million men. For years, this army was the bogeyman used by Republican conservatives to justify spending billions on the military. Unfortunately for the GOP, with the fall of communism, the military threat of the Red Army declined by half (currently, Russia has about 2.2 million soldiers, including reservists). Fortunately, the GOP has found a new bogeyman - ISIS.

ISIS at its strongest was about 30,000 soldiers, including both the Syria/Iraq theater as well as the Libyan theater, according to the US intelligence.

So, lets take a look at military size of Russia, US, and ISIS (I've also thrown in China for comparison purposes):

That one-pixel line to the right is ISIS. This is what the GOP sees as the existential threat to the United States.