Marine Expeditionary Unit Deployed – Is Kharg Island the Target?

Once upon a time in what seems like another life I was a Marine Infantryman. So news the 31st MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) has been deployed to the Persian Gulf got my attention. It’s clear that ‘boots on the ground’ are not just being considered but that it’s going to happen. Maybe. There are some issues I’ll get to Petey Boy Hegseth might not understand.  Remember the name Kharg Island because it’s exactly the kind of target you’d employ a specialized, small force to take and hold.

Let’s take a look at what we know so far. According to The Military Times Hegseth approved a request from Centcom (I have questions about whether THEY were the ones who made a request) to send an Amphibious Ready Group which includes an MEU to the region. So, the USS Tripoli which is part of the Tripoli amphibious group is on its way from its base in Sasebo Japan. All told, between the MEU, support personnel and those manning the ships in the group we’re talking about roughly 5,000 U.S. Sailors and Marines:

The Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group includes the America-class amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli, the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships USS New Orleans and USS San Diego and the embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit.

The 31st MEU, meanwhile, includes a ground combat element, which features a battalion landing team — an infantry battalion and combat support elements — of around 1,100 Marines and sailors.

In addition to that are other elements that make up this type of combat force:

Also included is the aviation combat element, which features tiltrotor and fixed-wing aircraft, transport and attack helicopters, ground support assets and air defense teams.

A combat logistics battalion with equipment and personnel capable of sustaining a MEU in austere environments for up to 15 days will also join the effort. This group includes medical, supply and explosive ordnance personnel, among others.

I mentioned Kharg Island for a reason. It’s a small island about fifteen miles off the coast of Iran – on the western side of the Straight of Hormuz.  It also handles about ninety percent of Iran’s oil that gets shipped. Pipelines run from the mainland to the island which has deep enough surrounding waters to handle the largest of tankers. The island also has refining capabilities. Roughly ten percent of the world’s oil supply runs through it. Naturally it also has military defenses, which were attacked (successfully we’re told) already BUT the oil infrastructure was left alone.  If we destroy that Iran will engage in total war on other country’s in the region. Their oil production/refining and shipping capabilities.

That presents a choice for Trump. Either blow the oil production capability on Kharg Island to smithereens or take it more of less intact with troops – in this case Marines and some sailors.  Could a MEU do the job? Sure. IF they are at full strength and can get there.  Let’s start with the first issue which is readiness:

The deployment of the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group comes less than a year after a Military Times report found the readiness rate of the Navy’s amphibious assault ships had dropped to just 41% amid the Trump administration’s ramped-up effort to combat drug cartels in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The readiness issue at the time resulted in a more than five-month gap in MEU deployments.

Well, well… it seems all that messing around in the Caribbean chasing drug boats that were carrying cargo destined for Europe, and messing around Venezuela caused a cutback in maintaining readiness of my Marine Corps’ amphibious assault units!  I have no doubt IF we can get them ashore on Kharg Island they’ll take it. We made our first (and successful) amphibious assault at Ft. Nassau in the Bahamas at the outset of the Revolutionary War. NO ONE has EVER thrown us back into the ocean. I assure you against defenses more formidable than Normandy again and again Marine’s have prevailed. Iran won’t be able to stop them either.

Of course, Marines and sailors will die because Iran still has its own forces. That includes some old-timers left from those years of war with Iraq that can provide adequate leadership. However that’s jumping the gun.  Take another look at the title pic.  Remember when I said the strategically vital Kharg Island is on the western side of the Straight? Way west in fact. AND that the 31st MEU is part of a larger AMPHIBIOUS assault group. Ah, that word amphibious. As in naval ships carrying troops, support (both supplies and personnel) and the means (landing craft, helicopters etc.) to get them ashore. And aircraft that can provide air support including attack helicopters which would be especially necessary for the precision to kill gomers but not damage the oil facilities we want to capture.

Call me crazy but I don’t think Iran is just going to sit along their coast and wave as the Tripoli Group sails through the Straight of Hormuz. Hell, they’ve already started mining it!  Yes, in theory minesweepers can clear a path. Assuming THEY don’t get attacked and if Hegseth believes (and has convinced Trump) that the Generals and Admirals warning that weapons and operators capable of carrying out shore to ship attacks still exist (and they do) are ‘Woke Trump haters’, ‘defeatist and will get replaced, incompetent etc. he all of us are in for a literal world of hurt. None more than the Sailors and Marines who would have to transit that narrow (less than 25 miles) strip of ocean in the Straight of Hormuz.

These are specialized ships. You can’t just airlift a MEU and some support gear/people into Kuwait, stick them on whatever large ships are available and send them over to Kharg Island. Nor are they equipped to mount an overland attack through a slice of Iran’s coast which since Kharg is an ISLAND still wouldn’t get them where they need to be. No, it would take a much larger force to mount an attack that could establish a beachhead on the coast but you’d still have the problem of getting fifteen hundred or so Marines across the water to take the objectives.

So what do we have. A half-baked idea that is a recipe for not just failure but disaster. Sinking a collection of U.S. warships or even damaging many of them would expand this still largely contained war throughout the region. Given the disruptions to the world’s economy that would ensue from a closed Straight of Hormuz (which is a given) all bets are off.  What worries me is that Petey Boy and his boss Trumpty have openly bragged about their bigly d!cks and will be faced with the humiliation of having to whip them out and show they aren’t so big after all. Or deal with the snickering and open mocking that they were fraidy cats – because neither is anything special in that department.

The sad truth is that once a country has mobilized for major military action it almost never pulls the forces back. At least until a lot of people have died. With the announcement of the 31st MUE’s deployment which from where I sit could only mean taking Kharg Island I fear we’ve crossed the Rubicon without most realizing we’ve done so.

Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula

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