'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 that move," Houlahan said. "I think this was simply an automatic registration of a program that all men over 18 years old are required to execute upon. Unfortunately, we had been seeing a significant drop-off in the people who were registering for that, because there were no longer places for them to do that in applications or having signing up for a driver's license, those were being diminished. There are punishments, real punishments for those 18-year-old and above young men if they don't register, and so an automatic registration was literally a mechanism to be able to make sure that we had the names and information for all of them and they weren't punished for not 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, but speaking to readiness and speaking to the fact that we now have a war that has been going on for almost 60 days and a cost to $1 billion to $2 billion a day, and many of that much of that cost is munitions that, once blown up, are no longer retrievable," Houlahan said. "Yes, this is deeply expensive and deeply worrisome in terms of our readiness in other theaters. So as an example, are we ready if something happens in the Pacific? I can't say with confidence that we are, because we've loaded up our resources and we're blowing up our resources in a totally different theater of war."

That seemed to shock Bolduan.

"You really, you're that concerned about military readiness now?" Bolduan said. "You think that the U.S. military would not be capable of fending off an attack somewhere else right now?"

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

"Let's let's be clear, our military is exquisite and our men and women in uniform are enormously capable," Houlahan said, "and our capabilities are unmatched across the world. No, I would never say that we're not ready. But I will say that there is a consequence to having, as you mentioned, the [USS] Ford out there for hundreds and hundreds of days with the sailors without a break. That does impact their readiness, and so we need to we can't have a constant battle with them. Literally, we need to have a purpose and a reason for the wars that we're in, and I'm just not clear, and I think the American public is not clear of why we are in this war."

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