The PDB Situation Report | August 8th, 2026: The Iran War Exposed a Dangerous U.S. Weakness & America’s New Nuclear Strategy

**Mike Baker** (0:00)
Introducing Meta Glasses.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:02)
You have questions, they've got answers.

**Mike Baker** (0:05)
Hey Meta, what's the capital of Peru?

**SPEAKER_3** (0:08)
Lima.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:09)
How do you say, where's the restroom in Spanish? Dónde está el baño?

**SPEAKER_3** (0:14)
Hey Meta, is a hot dog a sandwich? Technically no.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:18)
Spiritually, yes.

**Mike Baker** (0:20)
Hey Meta, what should I do with my life?

**SPEAKER_3** (0:23)
That's one of life's biggest questions.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:25)
What do you think?

**SPEAKER_4** (0:27)
Ask anything with the new Meta Glasses.
Hey parents, how do you make smarter choices for your kids' college today? That's where Sally can help. With Sally, you can find scholarships, funding options, tools, and guidance all in one place. And if you need a loan, Sally has options for different families and different situations. College is only worth it if you do it right. So don't just help your kid go, help them go smarter.
sally.com/goparents.

**Mike Baker** (1:06)
Welcome to the PDB Situation Report. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right.
Let's get briefed. First up, the war with Iran has reportedly burned through some of America's most important long-range missiles, raising questions about whether the Pentagon has enough left or another major conflict. Is that pantry almost empty? We'll break it down with Bill Roggio from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Later in the show, the Pentagon is reportedly rethinking America's nuclear strategy, as China rapidly expands its arsenal and challenges US power across the Pacific. We'll be joined by a good friend of the show, Steve Yates, of the Heritage Foundation for more on that. But first, today's Situation Report Spotlight.
New reporting suggests America's five-month war with Iran has severely depleted some of the Pentagon's most important long-range weapons. The Army reportedly used virtually all of its available precision strike missiles and attack them, while the Navy may have fired nearly half of the world's Tomahawk inventory. The shortage is now raising urgent questions about whether the US has enough missiles left for another major conflict, particularly against Russia or China, and how quickly defense manufacturers can rebuild those stocks. The pro-tip answer is not that quickly. For more on this, we're joined by Bill Roggio. He's the editor of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, long war journal, and a friend of the show, of course, and quite the dresser as well. He always puts me to shame, but look at you. You got the casual look on today.

**Bill Roggio** (2:45)
Well, remember the last time I wore a t-shirt, you had a collared shirt on. So I had a little Instagram. I was like, what do I do?

**Mike Baker** (2:53)
We got to coordinate our memos better. We got to get on. You know what? I'll talk to our wardrobe person, and we'll see what we can do about getting this right. So what is it, Bill? Let me ask you this.
Is it that we are running significantly low on munitions, or is it what the White House and Pentagon says, which is, now we're fine, nothing to see here?

**Bill Roggio** (3:18)
I suspect it's somewhere in between.
The reporting indicates that the munitions they're talking about are the interceptors, particularly the THAAD interceptors. Around 450 or so in the inventory prior to this conflict, and over 2,200 patriots certainly have expended a lot. It speaks volumes about Iran's number of Iranians, and the number of countries we've had to protect. I think this was part of Iran's strategy, or if it wasn't part of its strategy, once it starts reading the reporting on the United American United States, it starts stepping up attacks throughout multiple theories. You know, the US is defending Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait.
Did I mention Saudi Arabia? If I didn't, you know, that war on them. So it's a lot of ground to cover. The Iranians have fired hundreds, if not thousands, of missiles during this conflict, and that is going to lead to your intercept. Remember, it's not a one-to-one chill when you're launching interceptors to intercept these ballistic missiles. Often two, three or four missiles will have to be fired. And so you could run out of interceptors fast. Now, I don't know the answer. Again, I suspect there's a lot of truth that they're considered to be pleaded. The other question is how many missiles does the Iranians have? But they certainly have enough to continue this conflict, to continue to...

**Mike Baker** (4:57)
Yeah, you'd have to argue that we really don't... I'm sorry for interrupting, Bill. You'd have to argue that we really don't have a good idea about how many missiles the Iranians actually have because, you know, we went from... We obliterated their military, they have no cards, we decimated it to hundreds and hundreds of target packages, many of them involving launchers and missile stockpiles, ammunition depots. So I think it's safe to say at this point that we probably don't have precise intelligence on what remains in the Iranian arsenal.