He can outfit and march them the breadth of the continent at vast and ruinous expense.

It was a "scandal" that divorcing couples of relatively modest means were litigating at "ruinous expense" to their families, Mr Justice Munby said last week.

"Not for the first time I have here been faced with ancillary relief litigation conducted at ruinous expense to the parties," said Mr Justice Munby.

More soldiers, greater proportions of cavalry, and the ruinous expense of walling in cities all added to the toll.

Japan was spared the possibly ruinous expense of following through on this construction plan by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922.

For seven months, House and Senate negotiators struggled to reach a compromise on a bill to insure Medicare beneficiaries against the ruinous expenses of extended illness.

"Fed regs" also instantly killed off old favorites like the classic Austin-Healey that couldn't meet the new rules without ruinous expense and effort, if then.

That led to an intervention: "My mother yanked me from behind the shopping plaza and sent me (at ruinous expense) to a girls school.

"How can I go away with you, when we are losing by the farm, and when there is nobody to check the ruinous expenses but myself?"

But the combination of huge standing armies, almost continuous wars, military Keynesianism, and ruinous military expenses have destroyed our republican structure in favor of an imperial presidency.