The Pentagon has finally owned up in a recent report to something everyone suspected: they are running low on ammo. Between the back-and-forth tussles with Iran, artillery shells and gear are getting burned through way faster than expected, and the stockpiles are draining down quicker than Washington ever wanted to admit. For months, officials kept dodging the issue and tried to play down talk of a supply crunch.
Sitting under a shade awning in Phnom Penh with an iced coffee and scrolling through the news on the phone, it makes you realize that even superpowers running a war operate just like a household—spend too big and you eventually hit the bottom of the barrel. Out on the street, with the tuk-tuks buzzing and moto exhaust hanging in the air, the Middle East feels a world away. But when fuel and commodity prices start jumping around because of it, you realize nobody lives in a vacuum.
Local reports are pointing out that the U.S. Defense Department finally had to come clean because the inventory drain is just too severe and the supply lines are stretched too thin. At the end of the day, as the old saying goes, cannons roar and gold pours—and when the smoke clears, you just have to look and see how much rice you actually have left in the pot.
