Trump’s ‘first resort’ use of military has succeeded but it has its limits

Despite being the largest military in the world with a $1 trillion budget and roughly 1.3 million active-duty service members, the U.S. does not have the ability to deploy significant assets across the globe at one time, so every place of emphasis results in a deemphasis somewhere else. As a result, air, land, and naval assets are frequently moved around the globe in response to world events.

With the operations President Donald Trump has approved in the past year, ranging from a short, hot war with the Houthis in the Red Sea to the monthslong Operation Southern Spear to eliminate drug smuggling from Central and South America, that means assets have been going back and forth across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

The president “is reaching