Costly and depleting: The growing problems of Operation Epic Fury

The big drain on military resources has begun.  A war apparently already won (and not), against an adversary supposedly without means to fight back, its air force and navy destroyed, its missile capabilities blunted, is now drawing the clumsy colossus of American power into the Middle East with embarrassing effect.  The Middle East, where US President Donald Trump promised the “forever wars” would end, promises an end to his beginning.  The ledger of losses keeps rising with giddying pace.  The US casualty list, for now, remains manageably low, but the military purse is being raided with manic relish.  Operation Epic Fury cost US taxpayers $11.3 billion in munitions over the first six days, an estimate that excludes operating and maintenance […]