MAGA’s top warmonger has called for a second Iwo Jima as the Trump plots to move Marines in a bid to take control of Iran’s Kharg Island.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, 70, appeared on Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream and faced pushback from the host, who pointed out the lack of support for boots on the ground in Iran.
“I’m sort of tired of all this armchair quarterbacking. This has been an amazing military operation. God bless the fallen,” Graham said in response to being presented with an excerpt from The Atlantic predicting a “grinding war of attrition.”
As Bream protested, Graham continued: “I trust the Marines. Not that guy. I trust DOD,” he said, referring to the Department of Defense, which the Trump administration has filed the Department of War.
“We’ve got two Marine expeditionary units sailing to this island. We did Iwo Jima, we can do this. The Marines—my money is always on the Marines,” he said.
U.S. victory in the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945 saw the deaths of almost 7,000 Marines and the wounding of over 19,000 over a brutal 36 days of fighting. An estimated 20,000 Japanese soldiers were killed.
Graham continued: “I don’t know if you take the island or you blockade the island, but I know this: the day we control that island, this terrorist regime has been weakened.”
Later, the war hawk suggested that taking Kharg Island and toppling Iran would change tides in the Middle East, concluding: “So we’re weeks away from this Iranian regime not having the capability to stop peace.”
Graham’s readiness to repeat the high human cost of Iwo Jima didn’t necessarily convince viewers that peace was foremost on his mind.
On X, one person raged: “How f--king dare you, Graham??? My dad fought at Iwo Jima. He was fighting for freedom, not to serve the vanity and deranged whims of a single psychopath. You have no idea what patriotism means. All you know is toadying.”
Another echoed: “This is so disgusting. At the Battle of Iwo Jima, 6,821 American service members died (with over 19,000 wounded) in just 36 days of hellish fighting. Casually treating that kind of bloodbath like a casual flex to justify sending more troops to die is disgusting warmongering.”
Kharg Island—ominously known as the ‘Forbidden Island—is located toward the north of the Persian Gulf, and is where Iran processes almost all of its oil exports.
Trump has remained uncharacteristically silent on his plans for the area amid lowering support for his war, particularly concerning boots on the ground in Iran.
One aide told Axios that the desperate plan was in direct response to the impassability of the Strait of Hormuz.
“He wants Hormuz open. If he has to take Kharg Island to make it happen, that’s going to happen. If he decides to have a coastal invasion, that’s going to happen. But that decision hasn’t been made,” they said.
2,500 Marines were dispatched to the region last week, awaiting the arrival of two more units of a similar size.
