Biggest U.S. Ground INVASION of Iran… What Happens Next Is UNBELIEVABLE

Biggest U.S. Ground INVASION of Iran… What Happens Next Is UNBELIEVABLE

U.S. Marines and paratroopers are sailing

to the Persian Gulf region.

What started as a devastating series of airstrikes in

Operation Epic Fury is starting to look like the seeds of a ground campaign.

The U.S. is setting up for a ground invasion of Iran, and Tehran’s regime absolutely isn’t ready.

The ground invasion will change everything, and what happens next will be unbelievable.

The incoming forces to Iran certainly indicate that a ground invasion is coming.

The Telegraph reports

that the U.S. has sent around 2,000 soldiers from the elite 82nd Airborne Division to the Gulf,

and that they’re currently en route and will be ready to step into action if negotiations with

Iran break down.

They’re being joined by similar numbers of U.S. Marines from both the 31st and

the 11th Marine Expeditionary Units, or MEUs, the former of which should be arriving in the Persian

Gulf region at some point toward the end of March.

These are all units that specialize in ground

operations, with the Marine Expeditionary Units, in particular, often being the first to head in

when the U.S.

launches a ground invasion.

They served that role in both Iraq and Afghanistan,

and the signs are starting to suggest they may do something similar in Iran as the U.S.

amasses

a force of more than 6,000 elite soldiers around Tehran.

All signs are pointing toward boots being

put on the ground.

That will change everything for Iran, and the regime knows it.

That’s why

we’re starting to see some major signs of desperation from Iran’s regime mingling with

attempts to prepare for the possibility that it will have to deal with U.S.

soldiers on its

territory sooner, rather than later.

Kharg Island offers the clearest signs of these preparations,

along with a clue about one of the four ways we believe the U.S.

might choose to attack Iran by

ground.

According to The Jerusalem Post and CNN, Iran’s regime is hurriedly trying to fortify Kharg

Island in anticipation of the U.S.

deploying its MEUs and paratroopers on the island.

The former

reported on March 26 that Iran has been busy laying traps all over the island, and that it has

moved both military personnel and air defenses to the rocky little outcrop that plays a crucial

role in the Iranian oil lifeline that is helping to keep the country’s regime in power.

CNN says

much the same, while also noting that around 90% of Iran’s oil exports run through this one island,

so the regime has a very clear desire to protect it.

Without Kharg, the oil money stops flowing,

and the Strait of Hormuz becomes vulnerable.

Anti-armor and anti-personnel mines are among

the traps being laid on the island, CNN reports, with many of these mines reportedly being used

to lace the shorelines that a U.S.

amphibious landing would inevitably have to negotiate.

Iran’s challenge with Kharg Island is that much of the military infrastructure that already

existed on the vital island has been destroyed in U.S.

airstrikes.

What we see on the island now is

a desperate attempt to bolster a military force that the U.S.

claims has already been shattered.

 

On March 13, the U.S.

“totally obliterated” the island’s military facilities, U.S.

President

Donald Trump claimed.

Among what Iran lost on that day were missile storage bunkers and naval

mine storage facilities, both of which would be vital in any defense that Iran tries to mount

against America’s amphibious forces.

Air defenses, a helicopter hangar, and an airport control tower

were also reportedly targeted in an attack clearly designed to cripple the Iranian military presence

on Kharg Island, perhaps ahead of the U.S.

putting the boots currently heading toward the Persian

Gulf region on the ground on that island.

But that’s just one possibility.

There are others

that we’ll get to, but Iran’s desperation is also showing in how it’s approaching negotiations with

the U.S.

that could bring an end to Operation Epic Fury.

It’s not clear if these negotiations are

even happening, as the U.S.

claims that they are while Iran says that the U.S.

is negotiating with

itself, followed by its regime claiming that it has no intention of negotiating right now.

These

appear to be games being played by a regime that is very clearly worried that the U.S.

is about to

take Operation Epic Fury to a new level, and Trump is clearly frustrated by it all.

Taking to his

Truth Social platform on March 26, Trump declared, “The Iranian negotiators are very different and

‘strange.’ They are ‘begging’ us to make a deal, which they should be doing since they have

been militarily obliterated, with zero chance of a comeback, and yet they publicly state that

they are only ‘looking at our proposal.’ WRONG!!!” Trump then added that Iran’s regime “…better

get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is NO TURNING

BACK, and it won’t be pretty.” Iran can’t receive a warning clearer than that.

And as much as its

regime is trying to act as though it is operating from a position of strength in negotiations that

it claims aren’t even happening, the fortification of Kharg Island is the telltale sign that it is

very worried about what the U.S.

is sending its way right now.

Over 6,000 Marines and paratroopers

are coming, but what might happen next could catch everybody, especially Iran’s regime, completely

off guard.

Kharg Island may not be the target for a ground invasion at all.

In fact, attacking

that island is only one of four potential approaches that the U.S.

could take as boots on

the ground start to seem inevitable.

The first scenario we’re going to cover skips Kharg Island

altogether.

America’s plan might be to deal with Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz rather

than to weaken the regime with an assault on its oil facilities on Kharg Island.

And to pull that

off, the U.S.

would have to focus on the coastal regions in the strait, along with an entirely

different island that is perhaps as strategically important to Iran as Kharg Island, but for a

different reason – enabling its Hormuz blockade.

If this is indeed the plan, there are good reasons

why the U.S.

would want to execute on it.

Iran’s Hormuz blockade has essentially closed a waterway

through which about 20% of the world’s oil, much of it from Gulf countries that aren’t allied

with Iran, flows.

Iran is believed to have mined the shipping lanes established in that strait, and

its blockade has resulted in oil prices jumping up to around $100 per barrel.

Key to this blockade

is the asymmetric approach that Iran has taken.

Iran isn’t sending warships into the Strait of

Hormuz.

They would be easy targets for America’s overwhelming airpower.

Instead, Iran is using

a combination of drones, anti-ship missiles, and fast boats to make crossing the Strait of

Hormuz a very dangerous prospect for any merchant ship that would typically have used the waterway.

 

This is where the U.S.

ground forces come into play.

Iran is able to exercise so much control

in the Strait of Hormuz because its coast runs the entire 100-mile length of the waterway.

And

along that coast are hidden missile launch sites and makeshift ports that enable Iran’s asymmetric

approach.

So, what we could see from the U.S.

is the landing of its Marines, or perhaps airdrops

of paratroopers, who are tasked with taking out or holding key military nodes on the Strait of

Hormuz coast, thus taking away Iran’s ability to use those nodes in its blockade.

Then comes

the island that we mentioned earlier.

Qeshm is an island that overlooks the Strait of Hormuz.

 

It’s the largest of the many islands that are in the Persian Gulf region, though at about

130 kilometers, or around 80.7 miles, long, it’s certainly vulnerable to a ground campaign.

 

You might wonder why the U.S.

would even bother, though, given that Qeshm is more known for its

lush foliage and wildlife, which is why Iran applied for it to become a UNESCO World Heritage

Site back in 2007.

But behind the popular tourist destination lurk secrets that Iran doesn’t want

anybody to know about.

According to The Telegraph, hidden deep beneath the salt caves and mangrove

forests that have for so long made Qeshm a tourist hotspot is an underground missile city where Iran

has stockpiled weapons that include the types of anti-ship munitions it has been using to target

merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Some of the tunnels in this missile city go as deep as

1,600 feet.

Iran’s weapons are hiding away on an island that is perfectly positioned to aid in the

blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

For the U.S., a ground operation on that island would be a huge

help when it comes to solving the Hormuz problem.

Preceded by airstrikes, the 82nd Airborne Division

could land paratroopers on Qeshm, where they would seize military nodes and raid the tunnel network

that Iran has built under the island.

Combine that with MEU assaults against coastal military

nodes, along with A-10 strafing runs over the Strait of Hormuz itself, and the U.S.

may have

a military answer to the Hormuz problem.

So, that’s one potential approach in terms of what

comes next when America’s ground forces arrive in the Persian Gulf region.

The next is a little

more nebulous and certainly doesn’t have the sort of direct route to victory that we see in

this first strategy.

But before we get to that, this is a quick reminder that you’re watching

The Military Show.

If you haven’t subscribed yet, now is the perfect time to hit that button.

Second

on the list of possibilities is that the U.S.

starts deploying special forces operatives for

targeted missions inside Iran, which could extend to the destruction of military nodes or even

the capturing of key personnel.

That’s according to Ehud Eilam, who is a former official in the

Israeli Ministry of Defense.

Though Eilam notes that securing the Strait of Hormuz seems like the

most logical step for the U.S., “They may come and capture a certain objective, destroy some Iranian

radar or some Iranian facility, take some generals into captivity.” The difference in this approach

would be that the U.S.

would be focused on further degrading Iran’s military capabilities, rather

than attempting to capture and hold positions.

Small operations teams could certainly play a

role here.

And on the leadership extraction point, we’ve seen the U.S.

pull off those kinds of

operations in the very recent past.

It was only in January that American special forces took

Venezuela’s former President, Nicolas Maduro, into custody with an extraction operation that

penetrated deep into the heart of Caracas.

So, the U.S.

has the capabilities to capture leaders.

 

Whether the MEUs and paratroopers it’s sending to Iran do is another question.

Neither type of unit

is designed for that purpose, though paratroopers could indeed help with degrading military

nodes, perhaps in preparation for follow-on airstrikes.

You also have to consider how useful

the extraction of any of Iran’s leaders would be at this point.

Operation Epic Fury and Operation

Roaring Lion already took out former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during the first day of the

war with Iran, and dozens more military officials and political figures have been eliminated in

the days since.

Perhaps an argument could be made that extracting an Iranian leader, such as

Ali Khamenei’s son and new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, could give the U.S.

some leverage in

negotiations.

But it seems just as likely that Iran will continue on with a fractured leadership,

just as it has been throughout Operation Epic Fury.

Some isolated strikes against military nodes

inside Iran are a possibility.

Extracting leaders, perhaps less so, especially with the types of

forces that the U.S.

is sending to the Persian Gulf region.

That brings us to the third option,

which in turn brings us back to Kharg Island.

We’ve already touched on the benefits of putting

boots on the ground in Kharg Island.

It’s an island, for starters, which is perfect territory

for MEUs and can be targeted by paratroopers who are dropped into key positions on Kharg.

Plus,

there’s the 90% of Iran’s oil exports issue.

If the U.S.

can take control of the island’s oil

facilities, it will choke Iran’s economy, which in turn gives it leverage that can be used to force

the lifting of the Strait of Hormuz blockade.

Or it’ll just bankrupt the Iranian regime, forcing

capitulation.

Either option would be fine for the U.S.

An invasion of Kharg Island is also

very much possible, former CENTCOM commander Joseph Votel tells The War Zone.

“I would imagine

on a little island like Kharg, you would need a battalion-sized force of Marines or soldiers could

probably do that.

So you’re probably looking at 800 to 1,000 troops, kind of size, maybe a little

bit smaller, probably not much larger than that,” Votel claims.

Again, this is very much MEU

territory, and, if Votel is correct, the U.S.

wouldn’t even need the full force of the two MEUs

that it’s sending to Iran to take Kharg Island.

However, taking Kharg Island isn’t the issue.

The

real problem is this: Holding onto an island that is just 20 miles or so from the Iranian coast, and

would be a sitting duck for missile launches and other types of attacks from the Iranian mainland.

 

The Atlantic points out that this proximity to Iran, combined with the fact that the nearest

friendly base is about 140 miles away, causes issues.

It could put America’s ground forces in a

position where they’re trying to hold Kharg Island while they’re constantly under attack and dealing

with resupply missions that would inherently carry a lot of risk.

Drones and missiles would fly

constantly, and logistical support would be difficult for the U.S.

to provide as quickly as

needed.

Still, these are problems that can be solved, especially if the U.S.

forms a blockade

around the island and transports enough air defenses to secure it as best as possible against

the Iranian response.

If America manages that, the juice could be worth the squeeze, as Iran’s

regime won’t survive for very long, and the same goes for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,

if it doesn’t have access to the money generated by oil exports.

Though Kharg Island seems like

the clearest of the three options, based on the fact that the U.S.

has already hit its military

facilities and has threatened to strike again, there is a fourth option: Entering Iran and taking

its uranium.

Of the four options, this would be the most difficult, as it involves sending special

forces deep into Iran to essentially take over the underground bunkers where Iran’s enriched uranium

is kept.

That is far more than a destruction or extraction mission.

The U.S.

would need to

have enough soldiers in play to not only take the uranium sites but to hold them against the

inevitable Iranian counterattacks.

As Votel points out, sites like Isfahan and Natanz are hundreds

of miles inland and largely in open plain areas, which provide practically no terrain protection.

A

sizable force of anywhere between 1,000 and 4,000 troops would be needed to secure this kind

of site long enough for the enriched uranium to be extracted, and the U.S.

would also need

engineers and specialists who can conduct this extraction safely.

Much like with the targeting

of Iran’s leaders, questions have to be asked about whether MEUs and paratroopers are built for

these kinds of operations.

They seem more like the preserve of Delta Force or the Navy SEALs,

perhaps with support from MEUs and paratroopers.

But who knows? Those sorts of special forces might

already be on their way, and the U.S.

simply isn’t telling anybody.

What has been publicized so far

could be for force projection, while secretive special forces units could also be en route to

conduct the types of missions that the Marines and paratroopers that we know are heading to don’t

do.

If this is the route that the U.S.

takes, the big risks that come with it could also offer

some big rewards.

Iran’s nuclear weapons program was a huge trigger for Operation Epic Fury.

 

Though Iran isn’t believed to have nuclear weapons capabilities right now, it’s clearly working to

put itself in a position where it could build a basic nuke.

That much is clear from the sheer size

of the stockpile of enriched uranium that is in the country.

According to the Center for Arms

Control and Non-Proliferation, that stockpile amounts to 440.9 kilograms, or about 972 pounds,

of uranium that has been enriched up to 60% of the U-235 isotope.

This is the explosive isotope that

makes the types of nukes Iran would want to build possible.

And worse yet, the center says, Iran has

already completed 99% of the work it needs to do to enrich its uranium further to hit the 90% of

U-235 needed to build a nuclear weapon.

In other words, Iran says that it doesn’t have a nuke, and

it may be telling the truth.

But it could build one.

And that’s a problem that the U.S.

might look

to solve by sending soldiers into Iran to extract as much of its enriched uranium as possible.

 

This isn’t a one-day operation for the U.S., though.

It would need several days to package

and extract Iran’s uranium, and with that time comes the need to defend its troops as they do

their work.

Any of the four scenarios that we’ve presented here would change everything for Iran

and Operation Epic Fury.

That would represent the type of escalation that Iran’s regime never

expected, with each also being designed to strip Iran of key pieces of leverage it wants to use

to keep itself alive in this fight.

Losing Kharg Island means no more oil money.

The U.S.

putting

boots on the ground in the Strait of Hormuz and Qeshm would be a problem for Iran’s blockade

strategy.

If leaders are extracted, that gives the U.S.

more negotiating power.

And the loss

of its enriched uranium, which would likely be accompanied by the controlled destruction

of centrifuges and other vital equipment, would cripple Iran’s nuclear plans.

All could push

Iran closer to regime change, too.

Speaking to CBN News, former Deputy Commander of Israel’s Sayeret

Matkal special forces unit, Doron Kempel, claims that there are likely generals in the IRGC who are

frustrated and willing to defect, and he adds that both the U.S.

and Israel will have operatives on

the ground working under deep cover to push these defections along.

“At the decisive moment, when

the IRGC’s collapse is imminent, these generals could rally their forces, link up with Mossad and

CIA operatives, and ignite a full-scale internal revolution from within,” Kempel tells CBN News.

Perhaps U.S.

boots on the ground could provide that decisive moment.

If it does, Iran’s regime

won’t just be losing a key piece of leverage, no matter which of these options the U.S.

chooses.

It would also be primed to lose the very seat of power that it has held for decades.

What seems

almost certain is that the largest U.S.

ground invasion in Iran’s history is about to go down,

and it could change everything.

We’ve mentioned America’s MEUs several times already.

If you want

to find out more about what they are and what they could do in Iran, then check out our video.

And if

you enjoyed this video, be sure to subscribe as we track America’s moves as it looks to transition

to a ground-based phase of Operation Epic Fury.