US-Israel Strike Kharg Island, Threaten Broader Escalation on 'Day 15'
On what Al Jazeera reports as 'Day 15' of the US-Israel attacks, American forces directly participated in a military strike on Iran's Kharg Island. This island, Iran's primary oil export terminal, was hit following warnings from the US that Iranian oil sites could be next targets if Tehran were to 'disrupt shipping' through the Strait of Hormuz. Al Jazeera's reporting frames this as the fifteenth
day of US-Israel attacks, openly acknowledging the joint nature of the aggression. Mainstream Western outlets, including a recent headline from the Wall Street Journal, have consistently framed the situation as a defensive posture against 'Iranian aggression' or 'nuclear ambitions,' downplaying the direct US involvement and portraying Israel as a sole actor defending itself. This framing
conveniently omits the US as a direct participant in the strikes, whitewashing its role as a joint aggressor. When the USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 in 1988, killing all 290 civilians aboard, the State Department initially attributed it to human error, despite the aircraft being in Iranian airspace. This pattern of mitigating US responsibility in aggressive acts is deeply entrenched.
What the news won't tell you is that Kharg Island, a critical strategic asset, has been targeted before. During the Iran-Iraq War from 1980-1988, which the US primarily backed Iraq in, Iraqi forces launched numerous attacks on the island in an attempt to cripple Iran's oil exports. The current strike on Kharg Island occurs amid over four decades of paralyzing US sanctions against Iran, an economic