Return to Kharg Island?

 

"Will Kharg Island be the lynch pin on which this war will be decided? Maybe. During the Eight Year War between Iran and Iraq, Kharg Island took a beating. But now it is back and acting like the oil distribution center that it was built to be. We want Kharg Island functioning normally. Why? When the good guys take over Iran, they will need the commerce. But to win this war, we might have to kill Kharg Island once again. Stay tuned..." 

Oh boy - now we have done it. Kharg Island which is sacrosanct or almost holy to the country of Iran, was bombed yesterday - by US. We took out every single square inch of the island which could be used for military purposes. But the oil terminals? We left those alone - for now. This was the clearest possible message that Donald Trump could send to the IRGC, who are now running the country. Keep the Strait of Hormuz open, or we will lay waste to the oil terminals on Kharg Island. Then the oil markets worldwide will be turned upside-down.

Closing, or even threatening to mine, the Strait of Hormuz is world terrorism on a grand scale. For us, a nation which us awash in oil and gas, it is a few more cents per gallon at the pump. For nations who depend on over 50% of their oil from the Middle East (and needing to transit oil through the Strait of Hormuz), this will be catastrophic. And it is not only oil, but also badly needed fertilizer. Anything which can perturbate normal transits through the Strait is deadly serious. So serious that Donald Trump would decimate Kharg Island just to get the attention of the Iranians. 

Currently, ships from many nations are stacked up like cordwood in the Persian Gulf. Why? They don't want to get mined or droned. The United States is working feverishly to neutralize as many Iranian threats as possible. But all it would take is one ship, hit by something which would damage it so severely, that it would sink. That would really gum things up - for a long time. Thus, Iran is playing one of the few cards it has left. Threaten chaos in the Persian Gulf, especially by the Strait. 

How is the war going, one might ask? Except for the loss of six brave Americans in the KC-135 plane crash this week, the war is going fine. The loss of one American (in my book) is one too many. But this is war. And with the number of assets we have in the area, many of whom are doing some very dangerous tasks, it is almost a miracle we have not had more dead and wounded. The fact we have not is a tip of the hat to Hegseth and his team on how they have trained and trained and trained again for combat of all types. 

Will Kharg Island be the lynch pin on which this war will be decided? Maybe. During the Eight Year War between Iran and Iraq, Kharg Island took a beating. But now it is back and acting like the oil distribution center that it was built to be. We want Kharg Island functioning normally. Why? When the good guys take over Iran, they will need the commerce. But to win this war, we might have to kill Kharg Island once again. Stay tuned...