'Disaster waiting to happen': Prospect of U.S. ground troops in Iran triggers alarm

The deployment of thousands of Marines and paratroopers – potentially to seize Iran’s Kharg Island or other Iranian territory – is spurring worries among former military officials and lawmakers.

Mar. 26, 2026, 5:00 AM EDT
By
David Rohde
President Donald Trump has mused for decades about sending U.S. troops into Iranian territory. A key Republican senator close to the president is now publicly advocating for it. And lawmakers in both parties are sounding the alarm about the prospect.

The Trump administration’s deployment of 8,000 U.S. ground troops to the Middle East this week is inflaming tensions on Capitol Hill and spurring angst around the world — and is unlikely to force the Iranian regime to capitulate to U.S. demands, according to lawmakers, former U.S. military officials and experts on the region.

“I don’t think they’re any kind of a game-changer,” Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told MS NOW of the prospect of U.S. ground forces entering Iran. “I don’t think they represent a new and present danger to the Iranian government that would cause them to change their calculus.”

About 3,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division are preparing to deploy to the region, 2,500 Marines will arrive within days and a second group of 2,500 Marines will arrive within weeks. The 8,000 troops, though, are a small fraction of the 150,000 U.S. troops who invaded Iraq in 2003.
https://www.ms.now/news/trump-iran-war-ground-troops-kharg-island