Ask HN: Will US send ground troops to Iran?
8 pointsby general_reveal4 hours ago8 comments
  • softwaredoug3 hours ago
    I wouldn't be surprised if there's limited special forces / ground troops to secure Straits of Hormuz. US has sufficiently pissed off gulf allies that securing this reliably may be the only way to regain their trust. Not to mention avoid global economic collapse.
  • jleyank4 hours ago
    I think it will come down to the government's tolerance for casualties. This has not been a, erm, popular subject since ‘Nam but people forget too easily. If they think they’ll profit from it, they’ll throw them in. They’re NPC’s after all, not their kids.
  • Bender2 hours ago
    Yes. 5000 marines for now but they will ultimately have to send more if a goal is regime change. They will also need more to carefully breach and clear the deep bunkers that the bunker buster ordinance can not penetrate likely also containing tripwires. There will also need to be some to patrol the shorelines of the straight, a lot more. IRGC are 200K highly trained zealot soldiers.
  • Guestmodinfo4 hours ago
    Not a chance. Iran is much much bigger georaphy than Iraq. And now all countries are better prepared for their traditional foes than bygone era. US has done a misadventure thinking it is the middle East of early 2000. No now everyone is prepared thanx to Russia and China taking turns to equip traditional foes. Even though the Indian media did not say outright but even India and Pakistan war last year was a tough one for India. It was no easy victory. Rather there was no victory. Just ceasefire. Now everyone is prepared.
  • 3 hours ago
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  • anovikov4 hours ago
    It might be a good thing to resolve the crisis - just take over entire coastline to some depth where the first easily defendable natural barrier occurs, throw all locals out of there and make sure no one can infiltrate - then threat to shipping will be gone.
    • jleyank2 hours ago
      While there's coast near Bandar Abbas (sez Google), there's a whole lot of mountains inland of that. Not sure what the range of Iranian weaponry is, but digging troops out of mountains is something that tends to be avoided. There is a mountain division in the US inventory as I recall, but (a) no clue what its strength is and (b) also no clue when it last played in the hills post-WW II.

      If the Marines actually face well-armed zealots, it's going to look far too much like WW II in the Pacific. Are the US-ians ready to re-experience such casualties? Cuz I expect the zealots would be willing to do so. And Ukraine has shown the power of man-portable weaponry against the traditional tools of 20th century military operations.

      • anovikov40 minutes ago
        Surely no going to the mountains. Coast needs to be taken to prevent launch of any boats of mini-subs for minelaying. Of course, preventing drone launch will require capturing entire country - Shaheds have 1500+ km range - that isn't an option.

        Iranian missile capability is almost extinguished as it is, and drones are to be defended from using Ukrainian interceptors - first line of defence, on the ground on the coast, and second line, on ships themselves.

        Ah, and Iranian electric grid needs to be knocked out, and kept like that. It was done easily in Iraq in 1991. It alone prevents nuclear enrichment for the lack of electricity.

        It will perhaps never result in victory, but sustain suppression may be enough, Cuba-like.

    • krapp3 hours ago
      What video game rules do you think the real world operates under?
  • chistev3 hours ago
    This will get flagged for being political.