Trump scrapped plans to sharply escalate war on Iran because the Pentagon's Patriot air defense stockpile is nearly depleted. Gen. Dan Caine, Joint Chiefs Chair, privately warned that major new combat ops would fully drain the interceptor supply for US Central Command. The math is brutal: 1,200+ Patriot missiles already burned through at $4M each, while Iranian drones and ballistic missiles cost a fraction of that to fire. Attrition economics beat ideology. A senior US official also noted the real kicker: continuing strikes has kept Iran unified and focused on external threat, the opposite of what was supposed to happen. So this isn't some revelation about Trump's restraint. The military ran out of ammo and told him to stop.