The Trump administration is now writing up a plan to invade Iran, specifically the island of Kharg, Iran’s most important transit stop for shipping oil. Lindsey Graham is crying for the war to happen, whereas those of prudent thinking war that it will lead to US soldiers being slaughtered. The Washington Post reports:

If President Donald Trump approves the plans, such an effort would mark a new phase of the war that could be significantly more dangerous to U.S. troops than the first four weeks.

The Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, U.S. officials said, as thousands of American soldiers and Marines arrive in the Middle East for what could become a dangerous new phase of the war should President Donald Trump choose to escalate.

Any potential ground operation would fall short of a full-scale invasion and could instead involve raids by a mixture of Special Operations forces and conventional infantry troops, said the officials. All spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss highly sensitive military plans that have been in development for weeks.

Such a mission could expose U.S. personnel to an array of threats, including Iranian drones and missiles, ground fire and improvised explosives. It was unclear Saturday whether Trump would approve all, some or none of the Pentagon’s plans.

Pentagon planners are saying that the seizing of Kharg could take weeks or months:

Discussions within the administration over the past month have touched upon the possible seizure of Kharg Island, a key Iranian oil export hub in the Persian Gulf, and raids into other coastal areas near the Strait of Hormuz to find and destroy weapons that can target commercial and military shipping, officials said. One person said that the objectives under consideration would probably take “weeks, not months” to complete. Another put the potential timeline at “a couple of months.”

America thought that taking General Adid in Mogadishu was going to take 45 miunutes, and that battle ended up lasting days. Hitler thought invading Russia was going to be a breeze, and it ended up being a disaster. Michael Eisenstadt, a military expert, says that putting troops in such a small territory will leave them open to the Iranians raining down drones on them:

While there has been significant public speculation about U.S. troops potentially seizing Kharg Island, such a mission comes with significant peril, said Michael Eisenstadt, director of the Military and Security Studies Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. It may be safer, he said, for U.S. forces to lay mines around the island and use it as a pressure point to compel Iran to remove any mines it has laid in the Strait of Hormuz.

“I just wouldn’t want to be in that small place with Iran’s ability to rain down drones and maybe artillery,” said Eisenstadt, a retired Army officer who served in Iraq, Israel and Jordan.

…

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite paramilitary force, is likely to dig in and fight, the retired officer said, and those fighters could use Kharg Island’s valuable oil infrastructure there as part of their defense against U.S. forces.

Lindsey Graham, of course, is all for it:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) has called for U.S. forces to seize Kharg Island, drawing condemnation from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle after making a comparison to how U.S. troops seized the Pacific island of Iwo Jima during World War II — while suffering about 6,800 fatalities.

“We did Iwo Jima, we can do this,” Graham said in an interview on Fox News last weekend. “My money’s always on the Marines.”