The last war the US fought that could be called conventional was the Korean War. In ended in a stalemate. Every American war since then was longer and with a lower daily casualty rate. The daily KIA rates for the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq are respectively 30, 7, less than 1, and 1. For comparison, the same figures during the Civil War, WW1, and WW2 are 147, 97. and 215. All the other wars in US history are dwarfed by comparison.
The US has not and will never fight a war with a country that has nuclear weapons. Thus, the buildup for a conventional war with Russia or China was waste, as is the continuing presence of US troops in Europe and Asia.
The American public is particularly sensitive to casualties and there is little chance that the US military will abandon the all-volunteer force in place since 1973. Those two factors make it extremely unlikely the US will ever fight another war with a casualty rate similar to WW2, Korea, or Vietnam.
That being the case, how should the US military be reorganized? In brief, it ought to be reduced in terms of infantry, armor, tube artillery, manned aircraft, and surface ships while pivoting instead to cyber, drones, submarines, hypersonic missiles, rocket artillery, and portable thermobaric weapons.
I don't expect the US military to change very much from year to year, yet it ought to. Otherwise, it will continue to waste money and lose wars.
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