An opinion piece in The Jerusalem Post authored by AJ Jaff, retired officer of the Canadian Armed Forces and international security leader, is drawing criticism and concern for his proposal to draw more Americans into a ground invasion of Israel.
“The narrative war on the domestic American front has already failed. The Pentagon has not been able to sell this war to the American public because the war has been rhetorically fused with Israel’s operations in Gaza, and the American public rejects the fusion,” Jaff writes.
“Recruitment numbers are running below what a ground invasion of Iran would require,” he continues. “Estimates for a successful ground campaign against Iran’s 31 provincial commands and its Mosaic Defense Doctrine run between 750 thousand and 1.5 million American troops. The current active US Army stands at roughly 452 thousand. The math does not work, obviously.”
Jaff’s solution: enlistment through a federally-administered 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 going as high as $100 thousand,” he explains.
“This is the cohort the Pentagon needs,” he states plainly.
Jaff’s proposed plan would allow total forgiveness of student loan, credit card, and loan balances for any American in that age bracket after 24 to 36 months of service. He also proposes extending the benefits of the GI Bill to this population, which effectively covers the cost of a four-year undergraduate education.
“The moral reading on this is uncomfortable,” Jaff concludes. “But states generate the soldiers they need through the incentives that work on the population they have.”
Criticism of the proposal, particularly on social media, is sharp.
“The Jerusalem Post is now running editorials with ideas for how the Pentagon could recruit enough American soldiers to launch a ground invasion of Iran. They want to exploit the crippling debt young Americans are carrying by offering them a chance at forgiveness if they’re willing to go die for Israel in the Persian Gulf,” one user wrote on X.
In the same article, Jaff also recommends two other actions: US recognition of the sovereign independence of various Iranian minority groups, and a deal involving China.
With the upcoming visit of China’s President Xi Jinping to the United States, Jaff suggests brokering a deal “that guarantees Chinese access to Iranian oil under a post-conflict governance arrangement, in exchange for China withdrawing diplomatic and material support to Tehran.”
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