The White House Must Control Certain Islands

There are big and small islands that the White House must control. Where are they?;

Chet Nagle ——Bio and Archives--March 19, 2026

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In 1988, Donald Trump was interviewed by the The Guardian with the purpose of promoting his book, The Art of the Deal. America was still angry about Iran seizing the U.S. Embassy staff in Tehran in 1979, so when the interviewer asked Trump about his future ambitions, he answered that he might run for president and, if he won, he would insure global “respect” for the United States.

He also had words for Iran. “One bullet shot at one of our men or ships, and I’d do a number on Kharg Island. I’d go in and take it.”

Where And What Is Kharg Island?

Kharg island is a treeless eight-square-mile island 15 miles off Iran’s Persian Gulf coastline. It is located about 300 miles from the Strait of Hormuz and is Iran’s largest asset and its largest liability. The oil terminal was built by the American giant, Amoco, during the Shah’s rule in the late 1950s when huge modern tankers proved too large to sail into the shallow waters of Iran’s southern coastline. Instead, crude oil is now piped to Kharg from the mainland and from there loaded onto modern tankers. Even now, despite the war, the crude terminal appears to be operational with tankers seen alongside the island in the last few days.

Petras Katinas, a research fellow in the Royal United Services Institute says, “Seizing the island would cut off Iran’s oil lifeline, which is crucial for the regime. Of course, with shipping via the Strait of Hormuz now stopped, they cannot sell oil anyway, but looking ahead, seizure would give the U.S. leverage during negotiations, no matter which regime is in power after the military operation ends.”

Katinas notes that seizing Kharg will require U.S. troops to put “boots on the ground,” an act that President Trump has “seemed hesitant to undertake,” even though the island is defended by old surface-to-air missiles and anti-ship missiles that could easily be destroyed by U.S. forces.

Nevertheless, Trump said in a 13 March social post, “I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island. However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision.”

True to his word, he “reconsidered his decision” after Iran attempted to mine the Strait of Hormuz using small boats. Trump destroyed all the military targets on Kharg where a unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was based and armed with Silkworm anti-ship missiles, Eisenhower-era Raytheon MIM-23 surface-to-air missiles, and Soviet-made SA-5 air-defense missile sites.

Then Trump ordered the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, based in Japan, to deploy to the Middle East with its 2,400 Marine contingent aboard the amphibious ship USS Tripoli. The Tripoli was spotted south of Taiwan yesterday, putting it a week away from Iranian waters.

Trump has signaled that the toxic phrase “boots on the ground” does not worry him regarding domestic politics. He refused to damage Kharg’s oil infrastructure or elsewhere in Iran. He said he would not do it “for reasons of decency.”

The Marines on USS Tripoli will strike the small archipelago of Iranian islands that cluster close to the Strait of Hormuz. Because its navy has been destroyed, Iran is using small boats at night from those islands to mine the strait. The Marine Corps has often been described as “America’s 9-1-1 force.”

Another Expert Speaks

Former Pentagon official Michael Rubin, now an Iran expert at the American Enterprise Institute said in January that, “Should he take Kharg, rather than destroy it, he can not only ensure the regime can never again pay the salaries of its bureaucrats and soldiers, but also that, in the future after regime change, he can ensure that the new Iranian regime can finance its own rebuilding.”

American control of Kharg should also give the U.S. leverage over China that has ignored international sanctions on Iranian and Russian oil and currently buys a significant amount of global crude exports.

Guy Laron, an expert in international politics at the University of Jerusalem, said last weekend in a post on X, “Having the U.S. control the Persian Gulf from which China imports roughly half its crude and a third of its gas is a strategic catastrophe for Beijing,”

“Boots on the ground,” regime change and rising gasoline prices are toxic words in American politics, but those words are no longer protecting Kharg Island from Trump seizing it -- destroyed........

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