"preparing for war"

That's what a military is meant to do, be prepared to fight. That's true all over the world. China's military budget is still smaller than that of the US's. Further, our military budget is partly a product of the corruption and cronyism between defense contractors and the US gov't. That's also one (of many) reasons why we wouldn't win a war with China imo.

The US gov't would be better served working on the numerous problems we have at home. Obviously that won't impress anyone at board level at various defense contractors.