Bumping because it sounds like something I'd like to read too.
I've been joining in the chorus of "the US is a paper tiger" 
mostly because of my read of the capitalist rot of US military procurement but I'm sure there's more angles to explore
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Sending the energy to someone who knows of this article!
Was it this one? It doesn't explicitly say anything like "the third military in the world by power" but it's the best candidate I can find of recent vintage.
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Who has us beat? China I'm sure. Who else?
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