evidence: Iran was quick to leverage political openings to annex unprotected strategic territories. In late 1971, as the British formally dissolved their longstanding protectorate in the Persian Gulf, Iranian forces snatched three strategic islands from a fledgling United Arab Emirates, invading just before UAE even managed to formally declare itself as an independent state. The small Iranian-occupied islands, known as Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs, straddle the channels approaching the Strait of Hormuz, and, as such, are some of the most strategically interesting pieces of real estate in the Persian Gulf. The islands have been militarized, and each sport small-boat harbors, airstrips and, presumably, a full suite of missiles, radars and other surveillance gear. [...] Articulating a firm "use them and lose them" doctrine for Iran's island bases and militarized sea features offers the international community a framework to respond in a limited but consequential fashion to chronic Iranian adventurism. Blockading and taking Farsi Island, a piece of fortified sand eighty times smaller than Iwo Jima, can be done. Re-establishing UAE sovereignty over Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs and expelling Iran from dual-use military and maritime petrochemical production sites are achievable options as well.