Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, during which 5,931 Marines were killed — twice as many as all the Marines who died during World War I — including Medal of Honor recipient Gunnery Sgt. John Basilone.
So it is somewhat surprising that a prominent lawmaker would reference Iwo Jima while arguing in favor of a U.S. military operation to capture Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf as part of ongoing operations against Iran. Yet that’s precisely what Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) did over the weekend when he said on Fox News Sunday, “We did Iwo Jima. We can do this.”
A retired Air Force Reserve colonel, Graham advocated for taking Kharg Island, which processes about 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports. Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream pressed Graham about whether such an operation would involve U.S. ground troops, noting that an analysis from The Atlantic argued that any American forces who land on the island would be vulnerable to “ballistic-missile strikes, drone attacks, and petrochemical smoke, all without a reliable means of obtaining logistical support.”
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In response, Graham replied: “I trust the Marines, not that guy,” before adding, “We got two Marine expeditionary units sailing to this island. We did Iwo Jima. We can do this. My money is always on the Marines. 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 regime, this terrorist regime, has been weakened. It will die on a vine.”
Graham’s reference to the costly World War II battle drew criticism from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who is a fellow Air Force veteran.
“I am deeply upset at the lack of respect for life Senator Lindsey Graham is displaying when talking about our troops,” Luna wrote in a Sunday X post. “He is acting as if they are expendable cattle. This is unacceptable and dark. There were over 26,000 American casualties at Iwo Jima.”
A spokesperson for Graham could not be immediately reached for comment on Monday.
The 36-day battle of Iwo Jima marked the only time during the Pacific War that U.S. forces suffered more casualties than the Japanese. More than 6,800 U.S. troops were killed, and another 20,000 were wounded.
The brutality of that battle has become so ingrained in the U.S. military’s psyche that when Task & Purpose asked a Marine general in 2022 how many casualties the United States would likely suffer in a war against China, he replied, “We’re not doing an Iwo Jima again, right — that needs to be clear.”
It’s worth noting that a U.S. military operation to capture or blockade Kharg Island would likely not be anywhere near the scale of the battle of Iwo Jima, which pitted about 70,000 Marines, soldiers, and sailors against roughly 20,000 Japanese troops, of whom only 1,083 survived.
By contrast, about 5,000 Marines in two separate Marine Expeditionary Units, or MEUs, are currently headed to the Middle East, according to media reports. That includes about 2,500 members of the 11th MEU embarked on the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer and its Amphibious Ready Group, or ARG; and roughly 2,200 more with the 31st MEU aboard USS Tripoli, the Navy’s newest amphibious assault ship.
Marine Expeditionary Units train to conduct a variety of combat missions. In November 2001, members of the 15th MEU were the first conventional forces to arrive in Afghanistan when they took part in the longest amphibious landing in history. They have also been used to conduct non-combat missions, including evacuations.
“The [Amphibious Ready Group/Marine Expeditionary Unit] is the DOD’s ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of capabilities across the Range of Military Operations,” retired Marine Gen. Robert Neller, former Marine commandant, told Task & Purpose for a 2023 story.
