Iran War?

[crazy canuck]

I'm not sure what your source is and I really wish you would link it because it's completely inconsistent with what the New York Times was reporting just two days ago which you will see if you read my post from this morning.

Does widely reported to mean that you saw some post on social media saying it was being widely reported?

And realistically what are a mere 5000
Troops going to do, stage a landing and hold until relieved? 

https://apnews.com/article/us-military-iran-war-82nd-airborne-4b4c30ebc807b323fbf35c4435a739f1

Three points, that article says 1000.  Jacob says he saw as much as 3000-  really, where.

That article is relying on an earlier NYTimes article which is claimed to have said airborne troops would be sent. The NYTIMES article did not say that.  It said that pentagon sources told the NYTIMES that they were beginning to consider deploying airborne troops but no orders to deploy had been issued.

Sloppy reporting combined with people not reading the newspapers, add a bit of social media with a dash of lazy AI writing and misinformation and we arrive at a conclusion that a confirmed reporting of a couple of thousands airborne soldiers will definitely be deployed, complete with speculation about what their target might be.


WTF

[Jacob]

Three points, that article says 1000.  Jacob says he saw as much as 3000-  really, where.

That article is relying on an earlier NYTimes article which is claimed to have said airborne troops would be sent. The NYTIMES article did not say that.  It said that pentagon sources told the NYTIMES that they were beginning to consider deploying airborne troops but no orders to deploy had been issued.

Sloppy reporting combined with people not reading the newspapers, add a bit of social media with a dash of lazy AI writing and misinformation and we arrive at a conclusion that a confirmed reporting of a couple of thousands airborne soldiers will definitely be deployed, complete with speculation about what their target might be.


WTF

Oh come off it.

I said I'd seen it reported at varying numbers, because that's what I'd seen.

New York Times reports 2000: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/us/politics/82nd-airborne-division-iran-troops.html
Wall Street Journal reports 3000: https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/iran-war-us-israel-news-updates-2026/card/pentagon-to-order-3-000-82nd-airborne-soldiers-to-middle-east-3H7VxKvxkaorsOLcRt5g

... and Sophie shared a link to AP reporting 1000.

If you have information that the New York Times, Associated Press, and Wall Street Journal are wrong by all means lay out your better information here.

For my part, I'm much more interested in discussion, analysis, and scenarios based on troop movements than on the latest social media bleatings of Trump and his coterie.

[Jacob]

And realistically what are a mere 5000
Troops going to do, stage a landing and hold until relieved? 

Yeah that's exactly my question.

What good is that force? What could it possibly achieve?

I can speculate, but there are people here who have more experience and understanding of US military operations who might be able to give a better answer than my speculation.

Hence my question.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I suppose they could take Kharg Island....but it would not surprise me if the Iranians have booby-trapped that island and would blow the whole place up to strike a blow against the US. I've said it before, Trump is incapable of analysing how other people think, which places him at a big disadvantage when fighting religious fanatics with a martyrdom complex.

I'm deeply concerned that such a blow would turn a war against the Islamic Republic into a war against all Iranians; the ensuing death and destruction would be horrendous.

[Zoupa]

Another possible target is Qeshm island, largest in the gulf and right at the mouth of the strait. I still don't think it's likely.