I see thousands of dead US Marines

The Trump Administration is talking about taking control of Kharg Island, Iran’s primary oil export terminal, handling 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports, but all I see is the blood of dead Marines.

Map generated via Google AI.

On Monday, the 16th of March, 2026 it was reported that United States President Donald Trump stated the US Military had,

“totally demolished” most of Kharg Island, telling NBC News that its military may hit site “a few more times just for fun”.

Strangely enough, on Tuesday, the 17th, it was reported,

“Just one simple word, and the pipes will be gone,” Mr. Trump said at the White House on Monday, renewing his threat to attack oil infrastructure on Kharg Island after the U.S. bombed military sites there last week. “It’ll take a long time to rebuild that.”

And on Wednesday, the 18th, the headlines read,

“Next US move on Iran: Seize Kharg Island, secure uranium or risk ground war escalation.”

In other words, Trump lied again, and Kharg Island remains, for the most part, untouched.

The point isn’t that Trump lied, Trump always lies, always has, and always will. The point is that Kharg Island remains intact because Trump wants to control all of Iran’s oil. Trump has no intention of destroying Kharg Island, but he wants the oil and he is willing to kill as many US military personnel as necessary to get it.

The fact is: even MAGA doesn’t have the stomach for a ground war on the Iranian mainland, but with people like Trump and Senator Lindsey Graham pushing to take control of Iran’s oil… Well that would require a boots-on-the-ground invasion force of thousands of Marines.

“Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) late Tuesday said President Trump has “no reason” to invade Tehran but urged the president to “take” Kharg Island to cripple the Iranian regime’s economy.

“No, we’re not going to evade Iran,” Graham told Fox News’s Sean Hannity. “There’s no reason to, we’re going to destroy their ability to hurt us, have a nuclear weapon, build missiles to hit America and terrorize the region.”

“Kharg Island — 90 percent of their income comes from oil and gas revenue,” he continued, adding that “100 percent of that revenue generating capabilities on a single island, Mr. President, take Kharg Island, this war is over.”

But would it… be over?

Graham and Trump would have you believe that Iran would do nothing after US Marines seize the island, but is that the truth?

What if I told you that Iran has been manufacturing drones in Russia?

“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that Russia provided Iran Shahed drones that were later used on U.S. bases.

“First of all, Russia gave drones already, these Shaheds. They are using Iranian licenses. You know that they built and produced a lot of drones, they gave them. I have 100 percent facts that they — that Iranian regime used against American bases and against our Middle East — in Middle East, I mean, and Middle East neighbors of Iran, they used these drones,” Zelensky said in a recent interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.”

Estimates are that 500–1,000 drones are being manufactured each day in Russia and that only half of them are being used against Ukraine. You see, Iran has been expecting this since 2018 or before.

What if I told you that Iran began building drones in Tajikistan in 2022?

“On May 17, 2022, Iran inaugurated a drone factory in neighboring Tajikistan. The factory is officially Iran’s first drone production facility abroad and will manufacture and export the Ababil-2, a multipurpose drone with reconnaissance, combat, and suicide capabilities. With this factory, Iran intends to reinforce bilateral relations and reduce recent tensions with Tajikistan, address shared security concerns on the Afghan border, boost profits in a growing export market, and complicate Israeli efforts to further sabotage its drone program.”

As seen in the map above, stopping these drones from going to Iran would involve bombing Russia, Tajikistan, or other countries. How many drones are being produced in Tajikistan is unknown but in 2024 Tajikistan began working with the UAE to begin production of AI powered drones.

The truth is, there is no way Iran can hold Kharg Island should the US decide to take it, but what if, because they know they can’t stop the US, they decide to put up a token defense. Fire a few drones and missiles and give up.

But then, knowing that Trump has no intention of returning the island and oil production to Iran, they rain down holy hell on the island, killing most, if not all, of the invasion force. Let’s not forget, Russia is providing Iran with information from satellites. Without their oil they’ve nothing to lose.

You see, while a lot of folk are claiming that Iran has run out of drones and missiles, Kelly A. Grieco, a senior fellow with the Reimagining U.S. Grand Strategy Program (Stimson Center), and adjunct professor of security studies at Georgetown University, seems to think differently.

“After the Gulf War’s air campaign concluded in February 1991, U.S. commanders were confident that airpower had destroyed the bulk of Iraq’s Republican Guard before the ground offensive ever began. A subsequent General Accounting Office review found they were wrong and identified why. The Republican Guard was among the “least measurable” target categories in the entire campaign. About a third of reported F-117 strikes either lacked corroborating evidence or conflicted with other data, putting the probability of a successful F-117 strike between 41 and 60 percent. Commanders had mistaken reduced enemy activity for the physical destruction of enemy capacity.

That analytical error would recur in later campaigns — from Kosovo to today.”

Professor Grieco seems to think Iran is holding back. He goes on to write,

“There are at least three other plausible alternative explanations for the decline in Iranian launches. First, it could reflect tactical recalibration. Moscow is reportedly sharing with Tehran drone tactics developed in Ukraine, including coordinated routing strategies designed to evade air defenses, as well as overhead satellite imagery to improve targeting. Tehran could be using this time to learn, adapt, and refine its strategy and tactics.

Second, Iran’s lower daily launch rates could reflect deliberate stockpiling for larger coordinated attacks later. Russian strikes in Ukraine have at times followed a similar pattern. Moscow has repeatedly accumulated ballistic missiles and drones before launching punishing attacks designed to saturate Ukrainian defenses and force the expenditures of interceptors faster than they can be replenished. If Iran is applying the same lesson, the decline in daily launches could reflect stockpiling rather than depletion.

Third, operational priorities may also be shifting toward the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has warned ships not to transit the strait, saying that vessels “could be at risk from missiles or rogue drones.” These are not idle threats. Tehran has reportedly laid a dozen mines in the waterway, and recent imagery has shown cargo ships transiting the strait coming under attack. The U.S. Navy has declined near-daily requests from the shipping industry for military escorts, citing the attack risk.”

What if he is right? What if Iran is patiently awaiting the US invasion of Kharg Island and the other islands necessary to secure the Strait of Hormuz, only to trap US forces on those islands with no way out? The Strait of Hormuz looks tiny on a world map, but even at its narrowest point — 21 miles…. Think you could swim it’s fast currents? While being shot at?

I see the very real possibility of a bloody massacre of thousands of US Marines. And don’t forget, there are saltwater crocodiles as much as 28' long on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Yes, it’s a farm and tourist attraction, but they could be turned loose. Tell me some of the Iranian soldiers stationed on the island haven’t thought of it.

Grieco goes on to write,

“The pattern of Iranian attacks is more consistent with recalibration than capacity constraints. Over the first ten days of the war, Iranian strikes followed a deliberate escalatory sequence — military installations first, then logistics hubs and communications nodes, and then energy infrastructure. Each category served a distinct coercive purpose. This kind of target sequencing is not typical of an adversary running low on munitions. It is more consistent with deliberate inventory management.

Hegseth hinted at the risk himself, warning, “If the enemy can simply wait and then project power, that’s problematic.”

This leaves me to wonder how Americans might react to a massacre of thousands of American military personnel in a war to control the world’s oil supplies. Might they rise up, take to the streets, and demand Trump’s, Graham’s, and others’ heads on pikes?

I guess something good would come from it.