We're Arming Two Wars at Once. We Can't Afford to Pretend We're Not.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said on CNN that he doesn't see a problem with the U.S. military depleting weapons stockpiles while supporting Ukraine against Russia. The claim matters because it touches a real tension in American security: we can't sustain unlimited commitments everywhere, and pretending otherwise is how nations bankrupt themselves.

Here's what we know. The U.S. has been significantly drawing down ammunition and air defense systems to supply Ukraine since Russia's 2022 invasion. At the same time, tensions with Iran have escalated, leading to increased military posturing and operations in the region. The question isn't whether this is happening, the Pentagon's own reports confirm it. The question is whether those two commitments can coexist without one degrading America's ability to respond to the other.

Pence's denial matters less than the facts underneath it. The U.S. military industrial base has real limits. Ramping production takes time. Stockpiles that are depleted aren't instantly replenished. And a government that can't even track what it owns, the Pentagon has admitted it cannot account for $4.65 trillion in assets, has no business pretending it has infinite resources.

The Common Good Party believes in strength, but strength built on honest accounting. You can't make a decision about what America can actually defend without knowing what you actually have and what it actually costs. The Hill's reporting reflects a real conversation Americans aren't having: what are we actually committing to, and at what cost?