Posted 06 August 2004 - 07:35 AM
A few quick points:
Yeah, maybe they Should have had their own army, just in case. However, I can certainly understand how, after a thousand years of peace, an army might not be such a big priority to the people of the Republic. It probably just sort of got whittled down over the centuries.
I would say one of the big reasons we have an army today is because we are still very actively involved in fighting wars, and stuff like that. If the world entered a realm of relative peace (save for a few morons deep in the jungle, and the occasional corrupt crime syndicate), I would imagine we'd have little more than local police forces and maybe a National Guard for emergencies. Maybe we'd keep a standing military for a while, but after a thousand years, i doubt it would be nearly as big as it is now, if it even existed.