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When are boots on the ground?

On March 17, 2026, Politico's West Wing Playbook newsletter published When are boots on the ground?. No single author is named on the edition. "Boots on the ground" means American soldiers physically in the fight, not only ships and planes offshore. The newsletter says President Donald Trump that week ordered 2,500 Marines and an amphibious assault ship toward the Middle East, and that a Texas congressman does not think Marines on Iran's Kharg Island would count as combat troops. Kharg Island is the island that handles most of Iran's crude oil exports. An American family should care because the argument is about whether a landing on Iranian territory still counts as sending soldiers into the war.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. Politico reports the order sending 2,500 Marines and an amphibious assault ship toward the Middle East, a Republican congressman's on-record effort to define a Kharg Island landing as not "boots on the ground," and its Pentagon reporter's account of the missions those Marines could be given.

What the article says

Politico reports that Rep. Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, told CNN that U.S. Marines on Kharg Island would not count as "boots on the ground." He said the point of being there would be to secure the facility, not to fight a ground combat mission.

"The island is not, in my opinion, boots on the ground in combat circumstances."

Rep. Pete Sessions, to CNN, as reported by Politico, March 17, 2026.

The newsletter says his comment may preview a political fight. It says American troops on the ground in Iran are exceedingly unpopular in polls, so Republicans may try to define the phrase to suit themselves. It also says that once American forces cross into Iranian territory, even in small numbers, the risk to American lives changes.

Politico then prints an edited interview with its Pentagon reporter, Paul McLeary. He says the war so far has been fought with missiles and high-flying bombers, which can make it look remote. He says putting U.S. troops on the ground inside Iran would show that Americans are in grave danger.

McLeary says special operations deployments are not announced the way ordinary Army, Marine, Navy, and Air Force units are. He says those forces could be inserted from a submarine, by air, or over land, and the public would not be told.

He says the USS Tripoli and its support ships were moving from the South China Sea to the Middle East with 2,500 Marines trained for amphibious assault. He says it is not clear how they would be used. They are also trained for civilian evacuations. He says they could, in theory, go ashore and set up a beachhead for artillery or air defense, or be tasked with taking Kharg Island, which the U.S. had recently bombed. He says either mission would be exceedingly dangerous.

McLeary says that if the question is troops actually inside Iran, special operations forces, trainers, and intelligence personnel would all count. He also says Americans at bases in Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, and Kuwait are already under Iranian missile and drone fire. He told Politico that 200 of them had been injured and 13 killed so far in this war. Those figures are his account of casualties in the wider region.

What other reporting and posts add

The official line two weeks earlier. On 4 March, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters, according to The New York Times: "We've taken control of Iran's airspace and waterways without boots on the ground." The New York Times, Greg Jaffe, 4 March 2026. (capture: twitter/t52__v620.md)

The same week, a senator and a counterterrorism chief broke ranks. The day after this newsletter, a Daily Mail article pasted to X quoted Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) after a classified briefing: "We seem to be on a path toward deploying American troops on the ground in Iran to accomplish any of the potential objectives here." @OwenGregorian, 18 March 2026. (capture: twitter/t13__v150.md) On 17 March, the day of this newsletter, Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned. His letter, as quoted by the Saudi-owned magazine Al Majalla, said Iran posed "no imminent threat" and that the administration "started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby." That is Kent's accusation, made in his resignation letter. Al Majalla. (captures: twitter/t12__v144.md, twitter/t52__v614.md)

Israel's position on its own boots. Two days before this newsletter, Sen. Ben Ray Luján's warning was relayed with the line "Israel just said it will not put boots on the ground. Netanyahu could be pulling Trump toward U.S. boots instead." Those are the poster's words, not Luján's quote. @MarioNawfal, 15 March 2026. (capture: twitter/t13__v147.md) Israel's ambassador in Washington, Michael Leiter, had said on 8 March: "our preference is for the boots on the ground to be those of the Iranians." Politico, 8 March 2026. (capture: twitter/t13__v145.md)

Iran mocked the phrase. On 18 March, the spokesman for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, said in an English-language video, as the Daily Mail reported: "It is better to name this war as Epic Fear, instead of Epic Fury," taunting that US forces "do not dare approach." (capture: twitter/t13__v150.md)

What it shows

This newsletter catches the moment the words started to be redefined. With 2,500 Marines trained for amphibious assault sailing toward Iran, a congressman told CNN, of Marines on Kharg Island: "The island is not, in my opinion, boots on the ground in combat circumstances." Politico noted that ground troops in Iran are exceedingly unpopular in polls, so Republicans may try to define the phrase to suit themselves. Its Pentagon reporter added that special operations forces can be inserted without the public being told. The same week, a senator left a classified briefing saying the country was "on a path toward deploying American troops on the ground in Iran," a post relaying Sen. Luján's warning said "Israel just said it will not put boots on the ground," and the nation's counterterrorism chief resigned saying the war began "due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby" (see No Boots on the Ground and Congress and the Public).

Check it yourself

The newsletter is at https://www.politico.com/newsletters/west-wing-playbook-remaking-government/2026/03/17/when-are-boots-on-the-ground-00833174.

Status: Pete Sessions is alive. Donald Trump is alive. Paul McLeary is alive.

Why a newsletter about two words matters: since the US-Israeli air war on Iran began on 28 February 2026, officials had repeated that there were no "boots on the ground." By mid-March, Marines were sailing toward Iran and the phrase itself became a fight. If a landing on an Iranian island is redefined as "not boots on the ground," a promise can be kept on paper while soldiers go ashore. This edition of Politico's West Wing Playbook, a daily Washington newsletter, caught the start of that argument.

Research captures: twitter/t52__v620.md, twitter/t13__v150.md, twitter/t12__v144.md, twitter/t52__v614.md, twitter/t13__v147.md, twitter/t13__v145.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26