WarTalk: Potemkin Pacific, Midterm Budget Woes

A Democratic Senate could flatten defense budgets and end VC-subsidized "work at risk" funding for defense-tech firms like Anduril.

• Potemkin Pacific: ~40% of the underway U.S. Navy and 30% of missile stockpiles sit in the Middle East enforcing an Iran blockade, while Admiral Paparo commands a Pacific 'covering half the planet' with almost nothing forward-deployed.
• Iran blockade is the new status quo: hosts say the U.S. won't declare victory or walk away because Trump can't be seen as losing, even as Iran ignores the blockade and threatens a diesel export ban that could rattle world energy markets.

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