The arrival of 2,500 Marines and another 2,500 sailors is keeping the number of American troops in the Mideast region at over 50,000 — roughly 10,000 more than usual
The U.S.-led coalition that invaded Iraq in 2003 was close to 250,000 at the beginning.
Worth noting: Iraq and Iran are very different societies & cultures.
Before colonialism, Iraq was decentralized/tribal for thousands of years before being arbitrarily collected into a single political unit.
Meanwhile Iran was its own empire, with a central head of power for those thousands of years.
90% chance Trump thinks he’s at war with Iraq. Most of those troops couldn’t even find Iran on a map last month.
Trump is just doing the Neocon wack-a-Muslim in the Middle East. Israel told him where to wack.