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The Jerusalem Post Column: 750,000 to 1.5 Million American Troops for Iran

If you have heard that "Israeli news" wrote about putting half a million to a million Americans on the ground in Iran, this is the article. It is real. It ran on 30 August 2026 in the Jerusalem Post, Israel's oldest English-language daily. Its numbers are larger than the rumor: up to 1.5 million American troops. And it proposed how to get them: erase the debts of young Americans who sign up.

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED. The Jerusalem Post published AJ Jaff's opinion column "The war with Iran will not be won through airstrikes, so what's left?" on 30 August 2026, with the troop estimate and the debt-forgiveness proposal quoted below. Military.com, Blaze Media, and The New American covered it; Iran's Foreign Ministry answered it; the US Department of War declined to address it.

What the column says​

The author, AJ Jaff, is described by the Post as "a senior strategic security strategist and analyst with 20 years of experience across corporate security, military, and geopolitical intelligence," and by Military.com as "A retired Canadian Armed Forces officer." His column argues that more than 180 days of the most intensive American air campaign since Iraq in 2003 had not broken Iran, and that three moves remain. The second move is an American ground army:

"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."

"Recruitment numbers are running below what a ground invasion of Iran would require."

(Jerusalem Post, 30 August 2026; article page).

Two terms. Iran's 31 provincial commands are the Revolutionary Guard's regional headquarters, one per province. The Mosaic Defense Doctrine is Iran's plan to fight an invader with many semi-independent local units, so the country cannot be won by taking the capital. An army that must defeat 31 separate commands across a country of 90 million is an army of occupation, and Jaff sizes it at up to three times the entire US Army.

He says why the war has not been sold to Americans: it has been "rhetorically fused with Israel's operations in Gaza," and the American public rejects that fusion.

How to raise the army: debt​

"A federally administered debt-forgiveness enlistment program that fully discharges student loan, credit card, and loan balances after 24 or 36 months of service, and extends the GI Bill, would produce voluntary enlistment at scale."

He names the target: Americans aged 18 to 34, who, he writes, carry on average more than 40 thousand dollars in non-mortgage debt. "The economics of the indebted American 20- and 30-something make this the most efficient conversion mechanism available," he told Blaze Media. Before he put the idea in the Jerusalem Post, Military.com reports, he described it on his own blog as a way Washington "could exploit indebted Americans," and summed it up: "The debt was the trap." "The forgiveness is the bait." Go deeper: The debt-for-enlistment plan.

In plain words: Israel's leading English-language paper printed a plan to put up to 1.5 million Americans on the ground in Iran and to recruit them by the debts they carry. The column did not mention a single Israeli soldier taking part. Five months earlier, Israel's Channel 12 had reported that Israeli infantry would not join a US ground operation in Iran (Israel Keeps Its Infantry Home).

The author's timetable​

On 15 September Jaff wrote on X, as AJ Signal, that his article "went viral," that "the Pentagon would likely need somewhere around 750,000 to 1,500,000 American soldiers (or mercenaries) to launch its next phase which would likely be a ground invasion by Q3 2027" (AJ Signal on X). The third quarter of 2027 falls less than a year after automatic Selective Service registration of every American man aged 18 to 26 begins in December 2026. In a 7 September post he listed the American changes himself: "Army enlistment age raised from 35 to 42. Automatic Selective Service registration for ALL MEN 18 to 26 operational December 2026" (AJ Signal on X).

Why it was published when it was​

Jaff wrote in the column that the Pentagon had asked outside analysts that month for creative ideas on Iran. The Jerusalem Post had reported on 3 August that CENTCOM, the US command for the Middle East, was seeking "creative, unconventional" ways to punish Iran; IBTimes UK quoted the CENTCOM message: "We are looking for new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran" (article page). The column reads as an answer to that request, delivered through an Israeli newspaper.

Who answered, and who did not​

  • Iran's Foreign Ministry, through spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei: "Why should your sons and daughters be offered debt forgiveness in exchange for fighting and dying in a war Israel wants continued & expanded?" (Tehran Times, 5 September 2026).
  • The White House referred Blaze Media's question to the Department of War, which declined to address "hypotheticals" (Blaze Media, 2 September 2026).

No American official said it would never happen. Go deeper: Who answered the column.

How Americans heard it​

Reza Nasri's summary was viewed more than 290,000 times: "Look past the fact that a foreign newspaper is calculating how many American families should bury a child" (X, 3 September 2026). Blaze Media called it an "immodest proposal." The New American headlined "Ground Troops Needed to Defeat Iran. U.S. Army 1M Short." Military.com, the site service members read: "Israeli op-ed turns debt bait into American recruiting plan for Iran." Go deeper: How the column spread.

It was not the only such column. The Jerusalem Post also ran Rafael Castro's proposal to insert Iranian-American Army units into Tehran and Isfahan (6 May 2026), and JNS ran Joseph Puder's "put boots on the ground" (7 September 2026). See Israeli Press on US Ground Troops.

Where "half a million to a million" comes from​

The rumor's range sits inside the column's range. The column says 750,000 to 1.5 million. Other analysts put an occupation of Iran at "as many as 1.6 million troops" (Brandan Buck, Cato Institute) and "a million soldiers" (Col. Douglas Macgregor, ret.). For every figure and who said it, see Half a Million to a Million.

What a citizen can do​

  • Read the column yourself: Jerusalem Post, 30 August 2026. Compare its 750,000 to 1.5 million with the active Army of about 452,000 it cites.
  • Ask your representative two questions: Has the Pentagon produced a force-sizing study for a ground war in Iran? And will you vote against any law that ties debt relief, or registration data, to service in a war in Iran?

Go deeper​

The articles on this page's shelf​

Status: AJ Jaff is alive. Esmaeil Baghaei is alive. Reza Nasri is alive. Rafael Castro is alive. Joseph Puder is alive.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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