"Don't forget your stick, Lieutenant"
"Ah no, Sir. Wouldn't want to face a machine gun without this!"
The real point is that the US is prepared to pay the price to equip its forces properly, whilst the UK clearly is not. And I suspect that is the point being made by the US generals, although perhaps they are too polite to say so in as many words.
I recall the shock which registered at MoD some years ago when the US, quite reasonably, told them that they couldn't keep begging Military Airlift Command to bail them out for their Air Transport needs....
The foreign policy actions of the US are a separate issue. As is the nature of their in-theatre military action.
I recall seeing a news clip of reservists being called up in the US and being outfitted at some clothing store. All received the full scale of brand new equipment. Contrast that with the lack of boots in the Malvinas conflict, the lack of desert combat kit in Gulf War 1, the lack of body armour in GW2, the use of 'snatch' landrovers clearly unfit for purpose in hostile areas, the woeful lack of SH, lack of reliable AT.......... And the wholescale destruction of the UK's Defence Medical Service.
As for force sizes, as commented by a USN F4 exchange officer at Wattisham to one of his colleagues "Air Force? Shoot - I've seen flying clubs with more goddam airplanes!"