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Home / Grand strategy / What if America runs out of bombs?
Grand strategy

April 1, 2024

What if America runs out of bombs?

“We are at a point with our munitions stockpile where everything regarding American foreign policy is an issue of ‘can’ and not ‘should,'” says Dan Caldwell, an Iraq War veteran and public policy adviser for Defense Priorities who has been writing about munitions shortages for years. “This is not a reality that can be rapidly overcome by spending tens of billions of dollars on the defense industrial base.”

Caldwell says politicians are “lying to us about these constraints” and pretending that “the only thing holding back American foreign policy is a lack of willpower.” He calls it “mathematically impossible” for the U.S. to continue supplying different war efforts at the rate it has been, even without new wars on the horizon.

“We have no choice but to deprioritize certain conflicts and avoid getting into new conflicts unless we want a serious military disaster,” Caldwell concludes. “Stop pretending we don’t have constraints, because you are doing a disservice to the American people, and you are risking our safety and our prosperity.”

Read at Reason

Featuring

Dan
Caldwell

Former Public Policy Advisor

Defense Priorities

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