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"The Debt Was the Trap. The Forgiveness Is the Bait.": The Jerusalem Post Plan to Recruit a Million Americans

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED that the Jerusalem Post, one of Israel's largest English-language newspapers, published on August 30, 2026 a column estimating that a ground war in Iran would need "between 750 thousand and 1.5 million American troops" and proposing to recruit them with debt forgiveness (quoted on video by Caitlin Johnstone; reported by Military.com, which read the column and the author's earlier blog).

This investigation's audience often hears the claim that "Israel wants Americans to fight Iran." Here is the clearest case in writing. It is not a leaked memo and not a government statement. It is an opinion column, published openly in an Israeli newspaper, doing the arithmetic of how many Americans a ground war in Iran would take, and how to get them.

The column​

The author is AJ Jaff, described in his Jerusalem Post bio as "a retired officer of the Canadian Armed Forces and a recognized expert in international security, crisis management, and geopolitical risk." The column's title: "The war with Iran will not be won through airstrikes, so what's left?" Commentator Caitlin Johnstone read it aloud on video on September 3 (Caitlin Johnstone on X, September 3, 2026, 116,000 views). From the column as she quotes it:

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

"Based on American history, however, there is a path forward. Not conscription or a draft in a world war-era sense, but enlistment through a '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 go as high as $100 thousand. This is the cohort the Pentagon needs. 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."

"World War II offered the GI Bill. Vietnam offered college deferments. The post 9/11 wars offered signing bonuses and citizenship pathways. The Iran war will need to offer debt relief. The economics of the indebted American 20-and 30-something make this the most efficient conversion mechanism available to the Pentagon and the Trump administration."

"The moral reading on this is uncomfortable. But states generate the soldiers they need through the incentives that work on the population they have."

Johnstone's comment: "Today in dystopia, war pundits have begun suggesting that the US could recruit sufficient troops for a ground invasion of Iran by offering young Americans debt forgiveness in exchange for enlisting," and the author is "being amplified by one of Israel's largest English-language newspapers."

Ten days earlier, the same idea as a warning​

Military.com reporter Haley Fuller traced the idea back. On August 20, Jaff had written on his own blog that Washington could exploit indebted Americans to staff an invasion of Iran, and he meant it as a warning:

"The debt was the trap," Jaff wrote. "The forgiveness is the bait."

Fuller reports that he called the arrangement "the cruelty at the center" of the plan and compared it to conscription disguised as economic opportunity. Ten days later, in the Jerusalem Post, he recommended the same mechanism as "the most efficient conversion mechanism" available to the Pentagon (Military.com, September 9, 2026). On social media he wrote: "When the choice is decades chained to $45,000+ in debt, or a few years of service that erases it and hands you a clean start, a huge share of desperate young people will take the offer. Not because they 'support the war'. Because the debt was engineered into a cage, and service is the ONLY door out."

Not the only column​

Fuller found the same direction in other Jerusalem Post opinion pieces:

  • Mark Lavie: "If the US is afraid of getting army boots dirty, or, more seriously, taking some casualties in a legitimate military operation, then its army is a waste of time and money" (Jerusalem Post).
  • Rafael Castro proposed "organizing Iranian Americans into specialized U.S. Army units and inserting them into Tehran and Isfahan" (Jerusalem Post).
  • Shawn A. Weiss: "Israel's war is America's war," with support "without condition or reservation."

Fuller's own caution, in her words: "These opinion columns do not represent every Israeli journalist, citizen or government official. Several contributors are American, Canadian or European." That is true, and it is also the point: an Israeli newspaper chose to publish them. She also noted that "Congress would have to authorize and fund Jaff's proposal" and that "federal law prohibits enlistment bounties except for bonuses authorized by law."

Set it beside what Israel said about its own soldiers​

At the same time Israeli columns were counting American troops, Israel's own press was explaining why Israeli troops would not go. The Times of Israel, April 1, 2026: "As US weighs putting troops in Iran, realities on ground keep Israeli boots closer to home" (Times of Israel). Israel's Channel 12 was widely quoted on X saying "Israeli soldiers will not take part in any potential US ground operation in Iran" (the report was not confirmed on Channel 12's own site). Netanyahu said a revolution in Iran needs "a ground component" and would not say whose (see Netanyahu on Camera).

So the division of labor, as written in Israel's English-language press: Israel's boots stay home; the ground component in Iran needs 750,000 to 1.5 million Americans; and indebted young Americans are "the cohort the Pentagon needs."

How it was heard​

  • Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei seized on it, addressing Americans directly: "Americans, please ask yourselves just one question: Why should your sons and daughters be promised bank debt forgiveness in exchange for fighting and dying in a war that Israel wants to continue and expand?" (as posted on X, September 5, 2026). That is a hostile government using the column for its own ends; the column it quotes is real.
  • An American poster summed it up: "Americans can be a debt slave for Israel while they sit safe at home" (post on X, September 21, 2026).
  • An account that called the 750,000–1.5 million figure an "israeli memo" concluded "there is most definitely a draft coming" (post on X, September 24, 2026). It is a column, not a memo; but the figure is the same.

Why a parent should read it​

If the numbers in an Israeli newspaper are right, a ground war in Iran cannot be fought with the volunteers America has. The column's answer is to buy them with debt relief. The other answer, the one the column says it is avoiding, is a draft, and the automatic registration that would make one fast begins on December 18, 2026 (see Leavitt and the Draft). Either way, the people doing the arithmetic are not the ones who would go.

Status: AJ Jaff, Haley Fuller, Caitlin Johnstone, Mark Lavie, Rafael Castro, Shawn A. Weiss, and Esmaeil Baghaei are alive. The column is an opinion piece, not Israeli government policy.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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