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Jerusalem Post: Parachute Iranian-American Army Units Into Tehran

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED for the text. The Jerusalem Post published Rafael Castro's opinion column "Iranian-Americans could strengthen US strategy against Iran" on 6 May 2026. Castro describes himself as an independent political analyst based in Berlin.

The proposal​

Castro proposes that the United States build specialized US Army units from first- and second-generation Iranian-Americans, soldiers who speak Farsi and know the culture, and send them into Iran's cities against the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij (Iran's paramilitary volunteer force):

"Parachuting or inserting Farsi-speaking American units into Tehran or Isfahan would not feel like invading a foreign land to them; it would be closer to finishing the liberation their families began by emigrating."

(Jerusalem Post, 6 May 2026; article page).

He counts the pool: roughly 500,000 to 750,000 Iranian-Americans, citing census and Pew figures. He counts the enemy: about 190,000 active Revolutionary Guard personnel and roughly 90,000 active Basij, with a far larger reserve. He lists the American interests he says are at stake, including "protecting Israel and Gulf partners." He calls the diaspora units a cheaper option short of a full conventional war, "or in support of one."

What it means​

Read it plainly. A column in Israel's leading English-language paper proposes that American soldiers, selected by their family's country of origin, be parachuted into Tehran and Isfahan, the capital and the city that holds Iran's nuclear sites. They would be American citizens in American uniforms, fighting house to house. The column addresses loyalty concerns by pointing to the oath Americans take. The oath is the one American parents' children take.

Military.com put Castro's column in the same frame as the Jerusalem Post's later debt-for-enlistment column: two English-language Israeli-paper proposals for how to staff an American ground war in Iran, one by ethnicity and one by debt (Military.com, 9 September 2026). See The Jerusalem Post Column.

The same idea, elsewhere​

In March 2026 an Iran analyst floated "a diaspora-based Immortal Guard unit to spearhead an invasion of southern Iran from one of these islands, absorbing defectors and volunteers as it heads north," calling it "an out-of-the-box idea that's been circulating." The "islands" are the Persian Gulf islands the Pentagon's ground options named for seizure (Kharg Island and the Uranium Raid).

Status: Rafael Castro is alive.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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