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A remarkable story in Monday’s Washington Post dramatizes how deeply the Iran war has degraded the U.S. military’s ability to fend off attacks by adversaries elsewhere in the world. The story is based on the leak of a little-known classified document, which itself signifies that we’ve reached a new stage in the growing turmoil among the senior officer corps over the chaotic reign of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The leaked document reveals that the three four-star commanders in charge of U.S. military operations in Europe, the Pacific, and South America, as well as the Navy’s top admiral, all informed Hegseth that because so many of their planes, ships, and other weapons systems have been diverted to the war in Iran, they could no longer perform their tasks if a war broke out in their part of the world.

These senior officers were responding to the Aug. 14 edition of the Secretary of Defense Orders Book. As Post reporters Alex Horton and Tara Copp describe the book:

The SDOB, typically produced twice monthly, outlines the worldwide availability of U.S. warships, aircraft, personnel, and weapons systems. It reflects the president’s priorities for the force, which are carried out by the defense secretary.

The SDOB, typically produced twice monthly, outlines the worldwide availability of U.S. warships, aircraft, personnel, and weapons systems. It reflects the president’s priorities for the force, which are carried out by the defense secretary.

In response to that August edition, the top officers issued a comment of “non-concur.” This means they no longer had the number of ships, planes, personnel, or other weapons systems that, according to the SDOB’s calculations, would be needed to carry out the president’s priorities in the event of a war. These priorities spell out what steps the commanders should be able to take if, say, China assaulted or........

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