Several reports this week into Thursday say the Trump administration is quietly weighing a major escalation - potentially deploying thousands of additional troops to the Middle East as the White House struggles to map out an end game in Iran, according to Reuters.
Interestingly, the Reuters report doesn't include the phrase that Trump strongly campaigned against: 'boots on the ground'. Instead the report framed things more simply as "US weighs military reinforcements as Iran war enters possible new phase."
Are the American people being slowly prepped for ground action? Officials say the buildup would give Trump "additional options" with the war having dragged far past the initial pledges of 'days' or some kind of brief in and out Venezuela-style op.
Driving all of this is of course control of the Strait of Hormuz, given there are few options for guarantee tanker traffic through the chokepoint. After the Pentagon bombed some 90 military sites on Iran's oil export hub Kharg Island last weekend, the US is running up against the obvious limitations of a purely air and naval campaign.
In a scenario that screams escalation, discussions now include deploying US troops directly to Iran's coastline to secure the passage. The even more aggressive option is potential ground operations targeting Kharg - again given it is the nerve center handling roughly 90% of Iran’s oil exports.
There's also been talk of some kind of special forces raid to secure Iran's enriched uranium and key nuclear infrastructure, which some military analysts consider to be essentially a 'suicidal' mission.
One US official admitted to Reuters that putting troops around the Hormuz or on Kharg Island would be "very risky" - given Iran’s ability to hammer the island with missiles and drones.
There's also the reality of Iran's shoreline itself. It is jagged, mountainous, rocky, and narrow at points - giving the Iranian side a defensive advantage, also for hit and run style guerilla tactics.
As a reminder of some important commentary we featured earlier, most Americans have little understanding or concept of Iran's size in terms of geography or population. The ethno-religious make-up of the sprawling Mideast/West Asian nation is also deeply important.
Suffice it to say, Iran's population is more than double (over 90 million people) that of neighboring Iraq's. Iran is also the size of almost half the European continent. All of this is crucial for attempting to visualize what American military escalation there might mean, given the Trump White House has clearly not ruled out American boots on the ground amid the unfolding 'Operation Epic Fury'. And we are only now approaching three weeks in.
Consider: the US spent two blood-soaked decades occupying Iraq (again, significantly smaller than the Islamic Republic). Russia has spent over four years on its military operation in Ukraine, and Iran dwarfs Ukraine in size.