I disagree with the "context" you're trying to conjure up here. Petersellers' post is quite explicit, and directly equates paying for the construction/use of weapons to paying laborers to dig/re-fill holes in the ground.
At no point did he say it was disproportionate to the nation's wealth (or dirt-supply.)
Rather, his post argues it shouldn't happen at all.
In a part of the discussion talking about the arms industry funnelling tax dollars back into the American economy. I don't find it particularly unlikely that someone might then equate, within that context, it to be effectively analogous to ditch digging and not bother to qualify their remark more fully.
But, we can assume:
1. That Petersellers has grown to adulthood with a remarkably naive understanding of human nature.
2. Believes that the industrial and design capacities of modern nations are such that we could conjure effective weapons faster than a strike could be effectively delivered.
3. That they meant their statement in a somewhat more bound form.
Since 1 & 2 seem either unlikely to be held, or to be held by a mind that hasn't been convinced by the other arguments / observations it would have come across to the contrary, the latter seems the most useful context to interpret their remarks in. The others would either be mistaken assumptions or remove the point of talking to them.
At no point did he say it was disproportionate to the nation's wealth (or dirt-supply.)
Rather, his post argues it shouldn't happen at all.