AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): AJ Jaffe, a retired officer of the Canadian Armed Forces, claimed in this op-ed that airstrikes alone cannot achieve America's objectives in the war with Iran, and that in the event of a ground operation, Washington would need a much larger military force than the current capacity of its army.
Jaffe estimated that a ground invasion of Iran might require the presence of 750,000 to 1.5 million American troops, while the current number of US Army personnel is about 452,000. Noting this gap, he believes that calculations for providing manpower for such a war do not align with current realities.
To resolve what he calls the "recruitment crisis," the author proposed that Washington use the heavy debts of young Americans as an incentive, rather than returning to conscription. Under this plan, the federal government could grant individuals who serve 24 or 36 months in the military full forgiveness of certain debts, including student loans, credit card debt, and other loans.
The op-ed claimed that the average debt of Americans aged 18 to 34, excluding mortgages, is over $40,000, and some estimates have put the figure as high as $100,000. The author believes such financial conditions could turn a debt forgiveness plan in exchange for military service into a tool to increase young people's motivation to join the army.
This proposal has faced critical reactions. Critics view the plan to forgive debt in exchange for deploying troops to war as a sign of attempts to turn young Americans' economic problems into a tool for securing manpower for war. Some have also interpreted this proposal politically as indicating that Israel's supporters expect American citizens to bear the human cost of wars that also serve Tel Aviv's interests, a claim made within the framework of these criticisms and not necessarily reflecting the official position of the US or Israeli governments.
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