Renowned international relations scholar John Mearsheimer is once again urging the United States to end its war with Iran.
“The Iran war must end,” Mearsheimer stated during the August 10 broadcast of the program “Going Underground.” He revealed that the U.S. has already expended 80% of its THAAD missile interceptors and 65% of its Patriot missiles.
Mearsheimer noted that even before the U.S. provoked this conflict, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley had warned that American ammunition stockpiles were “limited.”
“We certainly cannot fight a protracted war. But what’s happening now is that we’ve found ourselves in a prolonged conflict. And shockingly, we are running out of precision-guided munitions,” he said.
According to Mearsheimer, the U.S. military has so far depleted 80% of its THAAD interceptors, 65% of its Patriot missiles, and 50% of its Tomahawk cruise missiles. Citing media reports, he added that the military has nearly exhausted its entire inventory of Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM).
“The United States has severely degraded its own precision weapons stockpile,” he asserted, noting that these weapons were originally intended for deployment in regions like East Asia and Ukraine.
Video Screenshot
Recently, multiple American media outlets and think tanks have published warnings that the U.S. military’s weapons inventory has dwindled at an alarming rate.
The New York Times, citing insiders, reported that the current military operations against Iran have significantly drained the Defense Department’s weapons reserves, leaving the Pentagon with fewer than 1,700 Patriot air-defense interceptors in stock.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that President Trump, during a recent meeting at Camp David, demanded that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth explain why shortages of certain key munitions had become so severe that they could potentially limit U.S. military options against Iran. Trump and the White House subsequently denied any conflict occurred at the meeting and dismissed the report as inaccurate.
On the afternoon of the 6th (local time), President Trump acknowledged that after months of war with Iran, some U.S. ammunition supplies were “relatively tight.” However, he insisted that if continued fighting were necessary, the U.S. still had access to other, less technologically advanced weapons.
He also emphasized that replenishing weapons stockpiles is crucial to prepare for potential future conflicts.
