House Republican Suggests U.S. Marines Are About To Seize Key Iranian Island – But They Wouldn’t Count as ‘Boots on the Ground’ 

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,” Sessions said. “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.

Watch above via CNN.

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