Key facts
- Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei urged Americans not to let their children become mercenaries.
- Baghaei's comments were a response to an opinion piece in The Jerusalem Post.
- The opinion piece suggested using student loan and credit card debt cancellation to recruit Americans for a potential war with Iran.
- The author of the opinion piece, AJ Jaff, argued that a ground invasion would require significantly more troops than the current US Army strength.
- Baghaei stated that the proposed enlistment was for 'someone else’s war' and an 'illegal war of choice'.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, has urged Americans not to allow their children to be turned into 'mercenaries' for a war that Israel wants to continue and expand. Baghaei's comments, posted on X, were a direct response to an opinion piece published in The Jerusalem Post by AJ Jaff, a retired Canadian armed forces officer and security analyst.
The opinion piece suggested that the U.S. could leverage student loan and credit card debt to recruit hundreds of thousands of Americans for a potential ground assault on Iran. Jaff argued that current U.S. military personnel numbers are insufficient for such an operation, estimating that a successful ground campaign would require between 750,000 and 1.5 million troops, far exceeding the current active U.S. Army strength of approximately 452,000.
Baghaei criticized the proposal, stating, 'Your lives. Your taxes. Someone else’s war. Do not let anyone turn you into the cannon fodder — and the bill — for a war you never chose.' He further implored Americans not to let anyone turn their children into mercenaries for an 'illegal war of choice.' The piece noted that the average American aged 18 to 34 carries over $40,000 in non-mortgage debt, with some estimates reaching $100,000, and that approximately 77% of Americans carry some form of debt, contributing to a record U.S. household debt of $18.8 trillion.
Jaff proposed a federally administered debt-forgiveness program where student loans, credit-card balances, and other loans would be discharged following 24 or 36 months of deployment, alongside an extension of GI Bill benefits. He described this as the 'most efficient conversion mechanism available' to the U.S. Department of War and the Trump administration.