Don't Give Trump $200 Billion for Iran (w/ Michael O'Hanlon) - Shield of the Republic - The Bulwark

[Rhiannon12866]

Eric welcomes Michael O'Hanlon, the Philip Knight chair in defense and strategy at the Brookings Institution, and author of "To Dare Mighty Things," and a recent op-ed in the Financial Times on the Trump administration's $200 billion supplemental budget request to fund the Iran War. They discuss whether there is a unique American "way of war" or "way of strategy," and the accomplishments of U.S. grand and defense strategies in the post-World War II era and whether Trump is undoing those achievements.

They also examine why limited force operations are sometimes hard to avoid, and the role of American pragmatism and innovation in allowing the U.S. to successfully adapt under fire on the battlefield. They close with a conversation about Congress's role in setting defense strategy and the role it could play in setting limits to "boots on the ground" in Iran and investing in the defense industrial base to increase its productive capacity to replenish the enormous stocks of precision munitions and missiles that have been expended in the war. - 03/29/2026.