Donald Trump's latest military moves have left staff at the Pentagon feeling "intense and paranoid," with several sources warning the Washington Post that key supplies could be exhausted if matters are not wrapped up swiftly.
Trump on Saturday confirmed that the U.S. would be joining Israel in conducting a major military operation against Iran, despite his past campaign promises about avoiding more costly foreign wars. As of Monday, six U.S. servicemembers had been killed in Iranian counterattacks, while Trump claimed that the operations were ahead of schedule and his officials stressed that the operation would not spiral into a longer conflict.
According to a Monday report from the Washington Post, however, staffers within the Pentagon are feeling extremely stressed about the situation, as Iran engages in a "full retaliation" against the U.S. and Israel, launching "dozens and dozens" of missile and drone counterstrikes.
"The mood here is intense and paranoid," one anonymous Pentagon staffer told the Post.
Trump has claimed that, while things are ahead of schedule, the operations in Iran could last for a couple of weeks to a month, with the possibility of an even longer engagement depending on how things play out. The Pentagon staffers warned, however, that the U.S. military's stockpile of supplies is dwindling and that there are major concerns about things lasting for more than a couple of days.
“There is concern about this lasting more than a few days,” another source told the Post. “I don’t think people have fully absorbed yet, like, what that has done with stockpiles."
The same source explained to the outlet that to stop just one incoming missile, "it often takes two or three air defense interceptors." Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, expressed similar concerns to the Post about the military's resources being "stretched thin."
"At this point, it’s on," Smith said. "It’s not like we can say: ‘Hey, Iran, we’re out of missile defense systems now so we’re going to pause for a moment. Is that okay?’ It will stretch our ability to defend everything that we need to defend."
Reports from last week indicated that Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had expressed similar concerns about the military's stockpile being too depleted to handle a conflict with Iran after so much had been given to Israel and Ukraine in recent years.
