It definitely is possible for a country to have expensive explodey toys and proper healthcare, food and housing, if the system was public, with minimal corruption and wealth appropriately taxed to fund it...

I bring up the argument "we could fund x instead of $y on military" because I think it helps give people a sense of the scale of the huge cost of war. Trump is asking for $200 billion from Congress for his Middle East excursion (so far), that amount can more than eliminate hunger and homelessness.