Immodest proposal in the Jerusalem Post: Deploy debt-strapped Americans to fight in Iran

The U.S. war with Iran is now in its sixth month, and at least one armchair general in a foreign country evidently figures that the U.S. must do far more than just wage economic warfare against Tehran and wear down its remaining infrastructure via airstrikes.

The Israel-based Jerusalem Post published an immodest proposal on Aug. 30: Send indebted Americans to the front lines.

'The economics of the indebted American 20- and 30-something make this the most efficient conversion mechanism.'

According to A.J. Jaff — a retired Canadian Armed Forces officer and self-identified "geopolitical security strategist" who has effectively been advocating for a ground war since the outset of the conflict — U.S. airstrikes have not completely diminished Iran's military capacity or solved Persia's "institutional problem."

Jaff suggested that "three moves remain available and must be calculated within the Pentagon and the American administration."

The first and third moves concern weaponizing ethnic groups on the ground and U.S.-China relations, respectively. The controversial proposal sandwiched between these two "moves" concerns the weaponization of some Americans' economic pressure points.

RELATED: Axios admits Trump has gained the upper hand in the battle for the Strait of Hormuz

U.S. airmen load an Army Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle onto a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft. U.S. CENTCOM.

After suggesting that the "narrative war on the domestic American front has already failed" because the Pentagon has supposedly been unable to rhetorically disentangle the conflict from Israel's operations in Gaza, Jaff noted, "Recruitment numbers are running below what a ground invasion of Iran would require."

"Estimates for a successful ground campaign against Iran's 31 provincial commands and its Mosaic Defense Doctrine run between 750 thousand [sic] and 1.5 million American troops," said the Jerusalem Post contributor. "The current active US Army stands at roughly 452 thousand [sic]. The math does not work, obviously."

In order to beef up the troop numbers for a new ground invasion in the country of roughly 93 million people, Jaff suggested that the way forward is "not conscription or a draft in a world war-era sense, but enlistment through a 'debt forgiveness program.'"

"The average American aged 18 to 34 carries more than $40 thousand in non-mortgage debt across student loans, credit card balances, auto loans, and personal loans, with some estimates go [sic] as high as $100 thousand [sic]," said the foreign writer. "This is the cohort the Pentagon needs."

Even though a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that only 31% of Americans support continued military action against Iran, Jaff believes Americans would volunteer to fight in the war if guaranteed total forgiveness on their student loans and credit card debt.

While acknowledging that the "moral reading on this is uncomfortable," Jaff concluded, "The economics of the indebted American 20- and 30-something make this the most efficient conversion mechanism available to the Pentagon and the Trump administration."

When asked for comment about the proposal, the White House referred Blaze News to the Department of War.

On whether it was considering recruitment through a debt forgiveness program of the kind discussed in the article, the Department of War referred Blaze News to "the services for programs on recruitment and enlistment programs."

When asked whether a ground invasion of Iran is presently an option on the table and how many troops would be immediately needed, a War Department official told Blaze News, "We won’t speculate on future operations or hypotheticals."

Jaff — who projected last month that the U.S. would mount a ground invasion of Iran in the third quarter of next year — is hardly the first to advocate throwing blood after treasure in Iran.

Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and former vice president of the American Enterprise Institute, suggested in a July article published by the Washington Examiner that to achieve victory over Iran, Trump would need to incur "combat deaths."

Olsen advocated for militarily occupying "the region around Iran’s key port on the Strait [of Hormuz], Bandar Abbas, to dramatically reduce its ability to interdict Strait traffic."

"The Marine Expeditionary Unit stationed in the region could be used to seize the city, with reinforcements flown in from the continental United States to expand and entrench American control," wrote Olsen.

President Donald Trump — who announced on July 8 that America's tenuous ceasefire with Iran was "over" — has emphasized that he is "not in a hurry" to negotiate an end to the conflict and claimed on Tuesday that America is presently in a favorable position with "almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and [Iran's] economy totally collapsing."

After U.S. Central Command forces' latest airstrikes on Iranian targets, Trump warned that if "the failed Nation of Iran retaliates," it "will be hit again at a much harder and higher level." The president noted further that "the biggest attack of them all" is still "waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran!"

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