Within a matter of days, Washington produced three snapshots of the hidden bill from the Iran war. The Pentagon signed a $22.9 billion contract to expand Tomahawk production. The Navy dispatched the USS George Washington from the Western Pacific to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln after a punishing deployment. Then, President Donald Trump said he had scaled back military exercises with South Korea because Seoul declined to help in Iran and was not paying enough for U.S. protection.

The first two developments explain why Trump is right to demand more from America’s allies. The third shows how not to collect the bill.

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This is not an abstract burden-sharing debate. The Lincoln deployed in November and, by last week, had spent more than eight months away and 208 continuous days at sea. Navy leaders acknowledged the significant strain on service members and their families. The Tomahawk agreement is designed to last seven years and raise annual production above 1,000 missiles. The bill for sustained American power is paid in sailors’ health, ship availability, munitions inventories, and industrial capacity.

Alliances cannot be one-way insurance policies.........

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