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Low on Ammo: US Running Out of Bombs While Daesh Thriving

© AP Photo / Hasan JamaliA US sailor works with bombs being prepared for loading on military jets on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. File photo.
A US sailor works with bombs being prepared for loading on military jets on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. File photo. - Sputnik International
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The ongoing war against Daesh has depleted US military arsenals and may pose a risk to the country’s national security.

The US Air Force fighter jets - Sputnik International
US-Led Coalition Conducts 20 Airstrikes in Syria, Iraq on Daesh
Wasting its limited military resources on a "failed strategy" puts the US national security at increasing risk in case of a full-scale war, national security analyst Daniel L. Davis wrote for the National Interest.

Citing an article on USA Today, Davis points out that the US Air Force has fired over 20 thousand bombs and missiles against Daesh (ISIL/Islamic State) targets in Syria and Iraq since August 2014, leaving its stock of munitions depleted and "prompting the service to scour depots around the world for more weapons and to find money to buy them."

The US Department of Defense will now have to divert money that would have been otherwise spent on training troops and maintaining combat readiness on replacing the spent munitions, according to Davis.

Yet despite these efforts, Daesh only expanded its holdings in the Middle East, he adds.

"If the US has launched 20,000 bombs and missiles against a non-state actor with no air force, navy, or modern army, how many might be required against a major world power with modern armed forces?" Davis wonders.

"How would the Department of Defense, Congress or the Administration explain to the American people that our armed forces couldn’t effectively blunt an enemy attack because we ran out of missiles?"

The US-led coalition of 65 nations has been conducting airstrikes against Daesh in Iraq since August 2014, and in Syria since September 2014, albeit without the approval of the Syrian government or the UN Security Council.

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