'You're that concerned?' CNN anchor blown away by intel Dem's warning about military

CNN's Kate Bolduan reacted with alarm to a House Democrat's warning about military preparedness as President Donald Trump's war on Iran continues into a third month.

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, raised concerns about U.S. weapons stockpiles and troop fatigue, but she told "CNN News Central" that she does not regret her vote to automatically enroll men ages 18 to 26 nationwide for selective service as part of a defense funding bill signed into law in December.

"No, I don't regret thatmove," Houlahan said. "I think this was simply anautomatic registration of aprogram that all men over 18years old are required toexecute upon. Unfortunately, wehad been seeing a significantdrop-off in the people who wereregistering for that, becausethere were no longer places for them to do that in applicationsor having signing up for adriver's license, those werebeing diminished. There arepunishments, real punishmentsfor those 18-year-old and aboveyoung men if they don'tregister, and so an automaticregistration was literally amechanism to be able to makesure that we had the namesand information for all of them and they weren't punished fornot registering."

The law goes into effect this coming December, but it does not create a mechanism to reinstate a military draft for the first time since 1973, although Houlahan warned that Trump's wars were stretching troops thin.

"So no, butspeaking to readiness andspeaking to the fact that we nowhave a war that has been goingon for almost 60 days and a costto $1 billion to $2 billion aday, and many of that much ofthat cost is munitions that,once blown up, are no longerretrievable," Houlahan said. "Yes, this is deeplyexpensive and deeply worrisomein terms of our readiness inother theaters. So as anexample, are we ready ifsomething happens in the Pacific? I can't say withconfidence that we are, becausewe've loaded up our resourcesand we're blowing up ourresources in a totally different theater of war."

That seemed to shock Bolduan.

"You really, you're that concerned aboutmilitary readiness now?" Bolduan said. "You think that theU.S. military would not be capableof fending off an attacksomewhere else right now?"

Houlahan walked back her warning to some extent and praised active-duty service members.

"Let's let's be clear, ourmilitary is exquisite and ourmen and women in uniform areenormously capable," Houlahan said, "and ourcapabilities are unmatchedacross the world. No, I wouldnever say that we're not ready.But I will say that there is aconsequence to having, as youmentioned, the [USS] Ford out therefor hundreds and hundreds ofdays with the sailors without abreak. That does impact theirreadiness, and so we need to wecan't have a constant battlewith them. Literally, we need tohave a purpose and a reason forthe wars that we're in, andI'm just not clear, and I thinkthe American public is not clearof why we are in this war."

- YouTubeyoutu.be