I wavered between writing another Iran war update and this article, so I’ll say a few things about the Iranian war. There’s evidence that Israeli intelligence networks in Iran and elsewhere are being compromised fast. It appears that:
In simple terms:
Israel’s attack on Iran exposed a hidden network. For 25 years, India’s RAW and Israel’s Mossad have worked together using Indian tech workers across the Gulf as quiet access points into sensitive infrastructure. This network runs through millions of Indian… https://t.co/zkJRVuSoPx
— Thomas Keith (@iwasnevrhere_) June 17, 2025
That India, a Hindu/Brahmin supremacist state which is increasingly treating its minorities the way Israel used to treat Palestinians before it went full genocidal, is allied this deeply with Israel is not a surprise. That they were willing to flush their intelligence network down the drain for Israel shows that they’re as stupid as the US.
This will, of course, lead to Indian tech and guest workers being unwelcome, and a massive crash in foreign earnings sent back to India.
Meanwhile, the US is sending vast numbers of planes and supplies to the Middle East. Only B-2 bombers can deliver munitions powerful enough to actually crack Iran’s underground nuclear enrichment. Trump is screaming “unconditional surrender,” the propaganda operation is in full echo of the Iraq war, and it certainly looks like the US is going to enter the war, though Trump is so fickle that nothing is certain until it happens.
Still, my guess is that TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) rankles with Trump, and since he’s too gutless to stand firm on tariffs, he’ll start a war.
Likewise, as Bush Jr. understood, war-time Presidents are popular. Trump’s polls are atrocious, and he will expect a rally around effect from being a war President to repair them and save him in the mid-terms.
Now, to the larger picture. A US war against Iran, combined with Ukraine and all the munitions sent to Israel, means that the US will not be able to directly fight China or Russia for years.
The non-secret weakness of the US military is how little munitions they are able to produce, a weakness which extends throughout NATO. Western militaries are expeditionary forces, even the American one, intended for fighting non-peer adversaries who are expected to collapse quickly. This means that production of war materials is low.
For example, the US produces the following quantities of air defense missiles every year:
- Patriot: 500-550, expected to go up to 650 by 2027 (the rate of increase is itself pathetic.)
- SM-6 (Aegis naval AD): 125-150 a year
- SM-3 (Aegis again): 20-50 a year
- Stinger (man-pad AD, important in Ukraine): 600-700 a year.
AIM-120 AMRAAM (middle-range A-A): 800-1,000- Sidewinder (short-range A-A): 1600-1800 a year
- THAAD (Air ground for intercepting short- to medium-range ballistic systems; Israel uses these, Ukraine doesn’t): 50-100/year
Numbers for offensive missiles are similar:
- Tomahawk missiles (sea-launched vs. ground targets): 68-100/year
- JASSM missiles (long-range precision cruise missile): 200-300/year
- Javelin anti-tank (man-portable): 1,200-1,500/year
- MGM-400 ATACMS (ground-to-ground, launched from HIMARS and MLRS launchers): 50-100/year
- Hellfire (short-range air-to-ground, laser-guided, launched from helicopters): 500-1000/year
Exact numbers are hard to determine for obvious reasons. Stockpiles of most of these missiles (but not all) have been drawn down vastly throughout the Ukraine and Israeli-everyone wars. If Iran is attacked, multiple years’ worth of production will be used up.
This means that China will have complete dominance in the their part of the Pacific, definitely around Taiwan and the first island chain, for years. Indeed, by the time the US re-stockpiles, China will be so far ahead in numbers of missiles that it will be hopeless, and that’s before we get to the fact that China can replenish stocks much faster than the US.
All of this goes without even discussing drones, where China’s lead is astronomical.
Empires do not go gentle into that good night. What the US is doing and enabling is monstrous.
But it is also accelerating American decline.
That is in foreign affairs. Domestically, Trump is systematically destroying the basis of American advancement in tech and science. The idea that private enterprise, which does not do basic research, can make up the difference is ludicrous to anyone who knows how science and tech works. Indeed, the current AI boom is based on university research from the 80s (Granted, it’s from research in Canada (!), a country the US has decided to turn from an ally into an opponent.)
Trump is also dismantling the social welfare system, turning the US into a police state (and not the sort-of-good kind, yes, they exist, China is one of them), massively increasing inequality and basically destroying any remaining social solidarity between Americans.
I can’t think of a more destructive US President except maybe Reagan (but that was long term). Even Herbert Hoover looks good. (He didn’t cause the stock market crash, he just responded badly.) Trump is just so actively malign. He’s not a Russian agent, but the cold war KGB couldn’t have put someone in place who was more damaging, even in their wildest dreams.
So, all of this is awful. But the US’s days are numbered, truly. Unless you are very old, or die an early death, you will see the end of the American Empire and even of American hegemony over the Americas.
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