Dear Reader,

SIX U.S. SOLDIERS ARE DEAD. The Pentagon has known since March 1. Eight months later, the survivors are finally talking.

An Iranian drone strike hit Port Shuaiba in Kuwait on the first day of the war. Killed six Americans. Wounded dozens more. The weapon used: a cheap drone. Cost to Iran: a few hundred dollars. Cost to us: six lives and a scandal the brass has been hiding ever since.

Inside today's issue:

• The Wrong War: Our generals prepared missile interceptors and radar systems. Iran sent $1,000 drones. This is the oldest mistake in military history. And we just made it again.
• Abandoned After the Fight: Nine survivors spoke to the AP this week. The military medical system told them to figure it out themselves. The empire sends you to war. Then leaves you there.
• This Is How Empires Fall: Not in one big battle. In a hundred small failures nobody talks about. History is clear on what happens next.
• Larry Benedict: Oil Skimming: Larry Benedict just released a new presentation on a strategy called "Oil Skimming." Worth a look. (Brownstone Research)

THE WRONG WAR

The AP published the full story this week. Nine soldiers, speaking publicly for the first time. What they described was not bad luck. It was systemic failure at every level.

The generals were focused on missiles. Iran sent drones. Cheap, small, hard to track. The kind of weapon a non-state actor uses when it cannot win a conventional fight.

According to Major Stephen Ramsbottom and three others briefed on the classified assessment, commanders had been warned about drone threats. They deprioritized it. They were waiting for the missiles they had trained to stop.

The missiles never came. The drones did. Six soldiers are buried.

"The generals were more focused on defending against missiles and were not prepared for drone warfare."

ABANDONED AFTER THE FIGHT

The wounded who survived the strike then faced a second battle: getting medical care.

Nine soldiers told AP that the military medical system left them to fend for themselves. Treatment was delayed. Follow-ups were missed. Some fought for months to get basic care for injuries they received in service to this country.

The Pentagon spent eight months saying almost nothing about the strike. No press conference. No accountability. No names.

Meanwhile, the war is now in its eighth month. Republican candidates are getting hammered at the polls. The trade deficit just hit $88.6 billion in July, the worst since March 2025. The Fed hiked rates for the first time in three years back in September, pushing the benchmark to 3.75-4%. Inflation is still at 3.4%. And another hike could come in October.

THIS IS HOW EMPIRES FALL

I have studied military history for 50 years. One pattern repeats, without exception.

EVERY empire fights the last war.

France built the Maginot Line. Germany went around it. The British empire prepared for cavalry in 1914. Machine guns mowed them down. The U.S. military spent decades and trillions perfecting missile defense systems. Iran bought drones off the shelf.

This is not a knock on the soldiers. They are brave men and women who answered the call. This is a knock on the people above them who failed to read the battlefield correctly.

The system does not protect you when it fails. It protects itself.

I want to show you something about where this ends. But first, take a look at this.

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WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL

Here is what I know from history.

When empires are in decline, their currency suffers first. Wars cost money. The Iran war is costing billions per month. The trade deficit is blowing out. The Fed is hiking into a slowing economy. Real purchasing power is getting squeezed from every direction.

The Roman empire did not fall because of one bad battle. It fell because it kept spending more than it produced. It kept defending borders it could not afford. It kept inflating its currency to pay for wars.

Does that sound familiar?

My rich dad taught me one rule: when the system fails, real assets protect you. Not because gold is magic. Because it is NOT a promise from a government that just proved it cannot keep them. Gold does not need the Pentagon to protect it. Silver does not need Congress to approve it. Real assets exist outside the system that just failed six soldiers and then told the world nothing for eight months.

You cannot fix the generals. You cannot fix the medical bureaucracy. You can decide right now that your wealth does not depend on either of them.

To your freedom,

Robert Kiyosaki
Author, Rich Dad Poor Dad

P.S. Three days ago my research team put a document in front of me that stopped me cold. It's public, it's legal, and almost nobody reads it. It shows where Washington's own money is going before the Pentagon's drone decisions, and Washington has to act by September 30th. Watch the briefing here.