I mean sure they could do the largest contested air drop since WWII, the C17s and C130s somehow avoid getting shot down while flying low and slow over the DZ, Iran falls for the island red herring and has most of their elite forces stationed in the south, the 82nd recovers the nuclear material...
82nd could get there anytime, conceivably. The BCT is supposed to be deployable anywhere in the world in 24 hours, in theory. Chinese media is reporting one of their private satellite imaging firms spotted the Tripoli at Diego Garcia so I'm guessing it'll arrive in the next few days. The Boxer...
I think it's pretty telling that Graham compared taking Kharg to Iwo Jima. If you're gonna take Kharg you have to try to keep the infrastructure intact so that getting it back is worth it to Iran - they need it to ensure their economic viability after the war and don't simply wither on the vine...
The Achaemenids must not be allowed to obtain wicker shields. I fully support Alexander the Great's special military operation. We simply cannot allow such a regime to have that much purple dye and threaten regional hegemony.
And even if we were committed to it, Russia, China, Israel, and the Sunnis have too much invested in the region to make a regional American vassal tolerable.
Seems like the utility of Kharg as a bargaining chip assumes that most if not all of the infrastructure on the island remains intact. I'm confident that if we decided to we'd be able to take it, the question is 1) how many American lives will be lost in the process and 2) how much of the island...