Donald Trump has deployed thousands of US Marines to the Strait of Hormuz amid mounting fears that America is set to put troops on the ground as the world’s oil supply is strangled.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth approved a request by US Central Command for the deployment of a Marine expeditionary unit, typically including several warships and 5,000 troops, three officials told the Wall Street Journal.
The Japan-based USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship, and its attached Marines are now headed for the Middle East, where they join other Marines already in the fight, the officials said.
The war spiraled on Friday as the US death toll climbed to 13 troops, domestic gas prices soared to $3.60 per gallon and Iran‘s security chief Ali Larijani defiantly taunted Trump on the streets of Tehran.
The bolstered deployment comes as the Trump administration weighs seizing Iran’s Kharg Island, around 16 miles off the mainland in the Persian Gulf, which handles 90 percent of the Islamic regime’s fuel exports.
Trump told Fox News Radio Friday about taking control of the island: ‘It’s not high on the list, but it’s one of so many different things, and I can change my mind in seconds.’
I have talked to some Israeli officials and read a good deal of Israeli media. Here is how the war in Iran is perceived there so far:
1) On a tactical level, they believe it has gone very well and Israel has destroyed more of the Iranian military capability than expected. 2) They are disappointed that the regime has not been weakened as much as expected and that they remain in firm control. In particular the lack of a “rise up” among the population is a cause of concern. 3) They are finding Trump to be unreliable. While Israel favors a prolonged campaign to ensure total dismantlement of threats, Trump has signaled a desire to end the war “soon,” creating a potential rift in war aims. 4) Hezbollah is stronger than expected. It has hit Israel with drones and missiles and killed soldiers. They have recovered better than expected. 5) The inability of Ben-Gurion airport to withstand closing and chaos has shown fragility in Israeli social cohesion. 6) They are disappointed in the lack of support from Gulf States who want an end to the war rather than the escalation Israel wants. 7) Israel accepts that the regime in Tehran will survive and just hopes that this weakens them in preparation for the next round. 8) There is a growing fear among Israeli strategists that they are winning the war but losing the region. While military targets are being obliterated, the civilian infrastructure damage is causing a backlash. 9) The war is proving very expensive. The need to divert NIS 28 billion ($9 billion) to the military has forced the government to freeze social projects, leading to the first significant anti-government protests since the war began, specifically from the middle class bearing the tax burden. 10) They are aware that the war is very unpopular in the US and that Israel is being blamed. They are concerned about the ramifications for the alliance.
While Netanyahu is painting this as a huge success, it really doesn’t look like one to Israeli strategic planners. The public knows it as well.
A preliminary military investigation has determined that the United States was responsible for a missile strike on an Iranian elementary school that killed 175 people, most of them children.
Donald Trump had previously blamed the Iranian regime for bombing a school filled with young girls with an American Tomahawk missile on February 28 during the first day of Operation Epic Fury.
The ongoing investigation determined that US forces made the mistake while launching strikes on a nearby Iranian military base, which the school building was once part of.
Officers at US Central Command decided to strike the school using outdated data provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, one of the premier US intelligence agencies.
The deadly operation on Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school, which was full of children, is considered one of the most devastating US military errors in decades.
The FBI alerted California law enforcement to potential Iranian drone strikes on the West Coast in retaliation for the US war against the Islamic Republic.
‘Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United State Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the US conducted strikes against Iran,’ the alert obtained by ABC News said.
‘We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack,’ the FBI update continued.
Public opinion matters. Public opinion stopped the monkeypox bs. The more the public knows, the more reliable its opinions are. Elections matter, but it is public opinion which fuels them. Public opinion strongly favors IDs for voters. Pragmatism enjoins us to support and encourage valid public opinions. The recent ‘rise in antisemitism’ is nothing more than rising public awareness of how crazy and violent Jewish Supremists are. It is because of them and them only that we are on the verge of WW3 and the use of nuclear weapons. ABN
Late night March 10th into the early morning today — Wave 37. Was one of the heaviest waves yet for ballistic missiles into Israel.
IRGC called it their “most intense and heaviest operation” of the entire war — three hours of continuous, multi-layered strikes using the Kheibar Shekan, Qadr, and Khorramshahr ballistic missiles. One-tonne warheads.
Erbil. The US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. Military centres in Be’er Ya’akov and Tel Aviv. Nearly half of the 300 ballistic missiles fired at Israel carried cluster bomb warheads — each one scattering dozens of submunitions across a ten-kilometre radius. They’re hitting both harder and smarter.
Eleven days in. Thirty-seven waves and counting fast. Iran is still escalating not degrading, escalating with its heaviest systems, its largest warheads, its longest-range missiles. Channel 12 News in Israel reported on March 2nd that Iran was virtually out of both launchers and AD batteries which was echoed by Western client media.
The IDF told you the interceptions were holding and yet we saw the 4th night in a row of iron Sieve (dome), Arrow 3 and what remains of 2 working THAAD systems looking like they were in a deep coma.
Meanwhile the Bahrain fuel terminal for the US 5th Fleet is likely still fire, the Israeli Defence Ministry complex has been struck, and Dubai is a ghost town. You were lied to AGAIN.
Iran’s 37th wave of ballistic missile strikes on Israel, launched late March 10 into early 11, 2026, marked the IRGC’s heaviest operation yet, involving three hours of Kheibar Shekan, Qadr, and Khorramshahr missiles with 1-tonne warheads—nearly half carrying cluster munitions scattering submunitions over 10-km radii.
The attack targeted Israeli military sites in Be’er Ya’akov and Tel Aviv, US assets in Erbil and Bahrain’s Fifth Fleet fuel terminal, and caused fires and evacuations in Dubai, contradicting Channel 12’s March 2 report of Iran’s depleted launchers and defenses, as evidenced by video footage of un-intercepted impacts.
In the 11-day Iran-Israel war, interception rates faltered for the fourth night, with Iron Dome, Arrow 3, and THAAD appearing overwhelmed per Reuters imagery of strikes in Yehud; ISW confirms multi-layered barrages, underscoring Iran’s escalation despite US-Israeli counterstrikes.
American Buddhist Net 