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Posted on 03/17/2026 4:36:20 PM PDT by Miami Rebel
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) says he believes the 2,500 U.S. Marines headed to the Middle East will be used to seize Iran’s Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf.
On Friday night, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. military “totally obliterated every military target” on Kharg, through which 90% of Iran’s oil exports pass. The president said the island’s oil infrastructure was left intact, but added that if Iran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, he will “reconsider this decision.”
Sessions appeared on Tuesday’s CNN News Central, where Kate Bolduan asked the congressman if he would support their deployment in Iran. Sessions replied that he would support the occupation of Kharg, and insisted that this would not constitute “boots on the ground.”
“Are you okay with putting those troops on the ground?” she inquired.
“I actually spoke to some media last night, and I indicated that I believe that what these 2500 Marines of the Marine Expeditionary Force would be, would be to probably secure the island. The island is not, in my opinion, boots on the ground in combat circumstances.”
“How so?” an incredulous Bolduan asked. “It is Iran.”
“Well, I’m not gonna argue that point,” Sessions conceded. “As a matter of fact, you’re right. But what I would say is the president has chosen not to obliterate the ability to get oil. And I think he wants to go secure that to make sure the Iranians don’t do themselves in. So, I think it’s probably wisdom. Is that boots on the ground? No, not like inside Iran, where they’re in the cities where we go through circumstances that we’ve had in the past of large areas of population, combatants against us. And it is a mess.”
“Ok, but it is boots on the ground,” she said. “It’s just not a large number of boots on the ground that you would oppose.”
“No,” Sessions responded. “I really want to make this point. When we think boots on the ground, we think going back to Somalia, we think going back to Iraq, we think about going to Afghanistan. That is not what we are talking about. Or at least I am. I’m talking about to secure this facility, the oil facilities, which are in everyone’s best interest.”
Kharg Island is about 400 miles from the Strait of Hormuz and sits just 15 miles off the Iranian coast. If the U.S. were to take the island, any soldiers there could be subject to an onslaught of Iranian drones and missiles. Moreover, it is unclear if the seizure of the island would generate enough pressure on the Iranian government to reopen the strait.
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Interestingly, I found this in a story from 2017:
"Sessions, as chair of the House Rules Committee, stalled a bill imposing additional sanctions against Russia and Iran from moving to the floor, saying that some parts of the bill, which passed the Senate on a 98–2 vote, could create 'huge problems to companies in Dallas, Texas, that I represent' and place them at a competitive disadvantage."
Why is he opening is mouth before it happens.
He is endangering our troops.
Why? He’s a politician! He wants everyone back in his district that he’s important and “in the know!”.
Well, it was kind of ‘obvious’. Who knows for sure but seems like a good guess from anyone watching things unfold. Wrong for a senior House member to say anything.
If troops take the Island, they will also secure land and sea bridges and I hope they have plenty of anti-drone and anti-mortar protection. Apache choppers can shoot down drones. The Iranians are probably crazy enough to attack their own oil storage facilities.
you do understand what air supremacy means, right??
Sessions is a wing nut.
This is a war of ascendancy, whether we will suffer from an evolutionary World Wide Caliphate or whether the path of Freedom , free trade, freedom of the seas will continue to be.
As tio my bet. Sure its Karg Island, and we will destroy eery launch site that fores on it.
But also a twofer. The North Shore of The Straights of Hormuz is about to become American property, with a large base built there.
Kharg Island is about 400 miles from the Strait of Hormuz and sits just 15 miles off the Iranian coast. If the U.S. were to take the island, any soldiers there could be subject to an onslaught of Iranian drones and missiles. Moreover, it is unclear if the seizure of the island would generate enough pressure on the Iranian government to reopen the strait.
What is left? Rowboats? Canoes? Any surface craft can be destroyed long before it reaches the Island.
It doesn’t mean they can stop those Shaheed drones (which are launched from a small platform and then fly by propeller at relatively low speed) or mortars across the strait. These systems can’t shoot down our aircraft but they can inflict ground damage.
I heard they have speedboats lol
wouldn’t they be sitting ducks?
Sessions is not in the decision making loop. What he is saying is what anybody would think when they heard that the US had just bombed the military infrastructure of Kharg Island and that 2500 troops were headed to gulf and that Kharg Island handles 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports.
Is obvious to anyone and everyone around the world who cares to look.
Needless to say—its a check mate move on the Iranians.
The North Shore of The Straights of Hormuz is about to become American property,
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that’s possible but not likely
The IRGC would not be above burning the island to ground or blowing it up. If it goes, it would take up to three years to make enough repairs to use the island again.
I wish the use of “boots on the ground” would stop.
There are men who wear those boots. Nobody gives a damn about the boots - but we had better be focused in the men who wear them.
I think it may be a broader campaign if we wanted to secure the straits by taking the land adjacent to the water. It’s not great terrain and it’s a lot of land to hold. Not suggesting it can’t be held, just would be a more difficult task likely requiring a lot more troops.
I think it’s common sense that it’s going to happen. Why eles would Trump deploy Marines
you do understand that those aircraft will have big, nasty bombs on them..there will A-10 Warthogs killing anything that moves...NOBODY will be get anywhere near that island, trust me. Sure, they can send a drone into a undefended hotel in Kuwait. Dont fall into the media hysteria trap.
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