"The U.S. committed roughly 80% of its JASSM-ER stealth cruise missile inventory to the Iran fight, pulling stockpiles from the Pacific to feed it. The conflict significantly depleted U.S. supplies of Tomahawk and Patriot missiles, THAAD interceptors and drones.
Beijing got a free masterclass in modern American warfighting: how we use AI to target, how we rotate carrier groups, how cheap Iranian drones drain our most expensive interceptors.
For Chinese war planners gaming out a Taiwan invasion, it was better than any simulation.
On energy, China emerged as a huge winner of the ongoing Hormuz shockwaves.
As Ian Bremmer points out, America's allies saw the U.S. pull missile defense assets from South Korea, leave allies in Asia without Patriot coverage, and shift naval power from the Pacific to the Gulf.
The message received in Seoul, Tokyo, Canberra and Taipei: American security commitments have an asterisk.
China's AI push got a clear boost from the war's second-order financial consequences."
Many more pluses for China at the Axios thread link.
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Historians will likely be calling this, "Trump's Folly".
