Christopher Preble
A truly terrible idea has been circulating in national security policy circles over the last few days, helped along by the New York Times and Bret Stephens (who knows a lot about terrible ideas). According to Stephens, “American control” of Iran’s Kharg Island “would give the [Trump] administration the whip hand over most of the regime’s remaining revenues, including its ability to pay salaries for soldiers and civil servants alike.”
This idea deserves to be shut down with extreme prejudice.
Roughly 90% of Iran’s oil exports flow through this small limestone plateau sitting about 15 miles off Iran’s southwestern coast. When tankers need to be loaded with Iranian crude, they go to Kharg. It is, by any measure, the jugular vein of the Iranian economy — which is precisely why hawks find it so attractive as a target, and precisely why hitting it carries consequences that extend far beyond any military operation.
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