If war with Iran escalates, Iranian retaliation could expand the homeland threat surface to include cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, activation of sleeper networks, and attacks on soft targets. This episode examines the intelligence community's assessment of Iran's capacity to strike inside the United States.

Sources for this episode are available at: https://www.wardesk.fm/episode/ep39

About War Desk

War Desk is an investigative podcast using AI-assisted analysis of military intelligence, diplomatic signals, and conflict data to assess global war risk, with sources and references published on our website for verification.

Produced by Island Investigation

Grocery prices in wartime spike fast, and a war with Iran would hit American consumers directly through gas prices, food costs, interest rates, and inflation. The cascading effects turn a military conflict 7,000 miles away into a kitchen-table crisis where war stops being abstract and becomes personal.

Sources for this episode are available at: https://www.wardesk.fm/episode/ep38

About War Desk

War Desk is an investigative podcast using AI-assisted analysis of military intelligence, diplomatic signals, and conflict data to assess global war risk, with sources and references published on our website for verification.

Produced by Island Investigation

If war with Iran lasts longer than a few weeks, the U.S. missile shortage becomes decisive. The defense industrial base bottleneck is severe: production lines take years to expand, sole-source components have no alternatives, and the gap between wartime consumption rates and peacetime manufacturing capacity would cripple a sustained campaign.

Sources for this episode are available at: https://www.wardesk.fm/episode/ep37

About War Desk

War Desk is an investigative podcast using AI-assisted analysis of military intelligence, diplomatic signals, and conflict data to assess global war risk, with sources and references published on our website for verification.

Produced by Island Investigation

U.S. military readiness can no longer support two wars at once. The 2018 National Defense Strategy officially abandoned the two-war standard that guided military planning for decades, and the current force structure, readiness levels, and logistics capacity would be stretched past breaking point by simultaneous wars in the Middle East and the Pacific.

Sources for this episode are available at: https://www.wardesk.fm/episode/ep36

About War Desk

War Desk is an investigative podcast using AI-assisted analysis of military intelligence, diplomatic signals, and conflict data to assess global war risk, with sources and references published on our website for verification.

Produced by Island Investigation

The Ukraine war impact on American military readiness is concrete and measurable. Specific weapons systems, including Javelins, HIMARS, ATACMS, 155mm artillery shells, and Patriot interceptors, have been sent to Ukraine and are now unavailable for a potential CENTCOM campaign. The munitions math limits what America can actually do in two theaters simultaneously.

Sources for this episode are available at: https://www.wardesk.fm/episode/ep35

About War Desk

War Desk is an investigative podcast using AI-assisted analysis of military intelligence, diplomatic signals, and conflict data to assess global war risk, with sources and references published on our website for verification.

Produced by Island Investigation

Forty years of Iran sanctions have failed to stop the Islamic Republic, and a war to destroy its nuclear program may not succeed either. This episode is a comparative analysis of the two primary tools the U.S. has used, economic sanctions and military force, and why neither has achieved its stated objectives.

Sources for this episode are available at: https://www.wardesk.fm/episode/ep34

About War Desk

War Desk is an investigative podcast using AI-assisted analysis of military intelligence, diplomatic signals, and conflict data to assess global war risk, with sources and references published on our website for verification.

Produced by Island Investigation

The 2026 military draft became more real when the U.S. government quietly changed Selective Service registration to automatic enrollment for all males aged 18-26 in December 2024. This episode examines what the change means legally, what it does not mean, and why the government made this move at this particular moment.

Sources for this episode are available at: https://www.wardesk.fm/episode/ep33

About War Desk

War Desk is an investigative podcast using AI-assisted analysis of military intelligence, diplomatic signals, and conflict data to assess global war risk, with sources and references published on our website for verification.

Produced by Island Investigation

Presidential war powers contain enormous loopholes that allow commanders-in-chief to wage war without congressional authorization. From the War Powers Resolution to the 2001 AUMF that has been stretched to justify operations in 22 countries, this episode maps every gap.

Sources for this episode are available at: https://www.wardesk.fm/episode/ep32

About War Desk

War Desk is an investigative podcast using AI-assisted analysis of military intelligence, diplomatic signals, and conflict data to assess global war risk, with sources and references published on our website for verification.

Produced by Island Investigation

The most consequential situation room decisions in modern history involve going to war, and a strike on Iran would be no different. This episode examines the options principals present, the pressures they face, and the 60-year history of presidential war decisions that shows how it really works.

Sources for this episode are available at: https://www.wardesk.fm/episode/ep31

About War Desk

War Desk is an investigative podcast using AI-assisted analysis of military intelligence, diplomatic signals, and conflict data to assess global war risk, with sources and references published on our website for verification.

Produced by Island Investigation

War supply chain disruptions would cause six critical materials to disappear, from semiconductor-grade neon to pharmaceutical precursors. Their supply chains run through conflict zones or depend on actors who would be disrupted by a major war, connecting battlefield events to your medicine cabinet and your phone.

Sources for this episode are available at: https://www.wardesk.fm/episode/ep30

About War Desk

War Desk is an investigative podcast using AI-assisted analysis of military intelligence, diplomatic signals, and conflict data to assess global war risk, with sources and references published on our website for verification.

Produced by Island Investigation