The United States Department of War “faces an urgent budget shortfall caused largely by the war in Iran, with some critical lines of funding set to run out within weeks,” the Washington Post reported yesterday. The breakdown of President Trump’s ceasefire threatens to exacerbate this financial crisis.

• The Post’s sources claimed “the funding crunch is already leading the Pentagon to limit training and maintenance that help maintain military readiness.”
• President Trump is waiting for Congress to consider granting him an extra $67 billion for the Iran war alone. The government’s current estimates for the war’s total costs are reportedly around $100 billion.
• The war’s initial phase of fighting from February to April severely taxed America’s munitions stockpiles. These will take years to replenish. A “U.S. official” speaking with the Post earlier this month, referring to the current round of fighting, claimed: “We do not have enough [munitions] to safely sustain operations, and I don’t think the White House is aware of that.”

Iran is not the world’s only major flashpoint. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is ongoing and has drained U.S. resources. China is making overt threats of taking over Taiwan and the South China Sea. Hamas is still fighting Israel in Gaza. For decades, the United States was the West’s primary enforcer to deter or limit conflicts like these.

The Iran war’s financial statistics raise the question of whether the U.S. can keep fulfilling this role even if it wanted to. They are another sign that, as Trumpet managing editor Joel Hilliker wrote in 2014, “Pax Americana joins Pax Britannica and Pax Romana: It’s history. … The big question now is, what happens next?“