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"Let Them Come": Iranian Officials on Camera Daring American Ground Troops

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED that Iranian officials and state media repeatedly said on camera, from March to September 2026, that they were waiting for American ground troops and would make a ground war deadly. Individual speakers are sometimes unnamed in the posts; each item says so. These are the words of a government at war with the United States, reported so American families know what their sons and daughters would be sent into.

Every discussion of "boots on the ground" in Washington has a second half that American viewers rarely see: what the other side says it will do when they arrive. Through 2026, Iranian officials answered every report of Pentagon ground plans with the same message: come.

"We are waiting for them"​

  • The foreign minister, early March. Asked on NBC whether Iran was afraid of a U.S. invasion, Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi answered, as the clip was captioned, "No, we are waiting for them" (post on X, March 13, 2026; NBC clip as posted).
  • An ambassador, March 31. "JOURNALIST: 'America is all set to deploy ground troops in Iran.' IRANIAN AMBASSADOR: 'Let them come, we are ready. They won't be able to attack us & flee like they do in fighter jets. We welcome them'" (Open Source Intel on X, March 31, 2026; a copy drew 451,000 views, on X). Neither the journalist nor the ambassador is named in the posts.
  • The Armed Forces General Staff, April 2. Reported by Iran's Fars news agency: "In the ground operation, we will create a slaughterhouse for the Americans to instill such fear that for several future generations, Americans will not volunteer to join the army" (Disclose.tv on X, April 2, 2026, 346,000 views). A fuller rendering relayed by a Russian military blog: "In a close-quarter battle, we will unleash such a catastrophe on the Americans that no one will want to be a soldier in the US Army anymore," and American soldiers are "hiding in hotels and ports," but "there will be no shelters in a ground war" (on X, April 3, 2026).
  • The army chiefs, April 2. Headlines on X's news page that day: "Chief of Iran's Artesh (Army): Not a single enemy soldier should make it out of Iran alive in case of a ground offensive," and "Iran Armed Forces General Staff Spox Shekarchi says they are waiting for Trump to put boots on the ground" (X news summary, April 2, 2026).
  • Iranian state TV, July. Iran was "waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire," promising "a historic hell for the Americans on Iranian soil," as X summarized the broadcast (X news summary, July 22, 2026).
  • Mohsen Rezaee, September 20, as secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (the title given in the posts): "If they are sincere, let their soldiers come and enter Iran ... Ground forces always have the final say in wars. Why don't they deploy airborne divisions? Why don't American ground forces enter Iran? Why do they only bomb from the sky and then leave?" (MaxOsint Intel on X, September 20, 2026; Clash Report on X).

The numbers Iran claims​

Iran backed the threats with mobilization claims: a "Janfada" ("sacrificing life") volunteer drive reported by the Wall Street Journal (Defence Index on X, March 29, 2026); an online portal claiming five million sign-ups, with the Revolutionary Guard accepting recruits as young as 12, per the Financial Times as relayed by Mario Nawfal (on X, April 1, 2026); parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf's claim of 7 million volunteers; and, in a September 18 post by the account Open Source Intel, "A mobilization drive has started in Tehran to form 1,000 battalions, with plans to extend the effort nationwide." These are Iranian claims and should be read as propaganda meant to deter. But the size of the country is not propaganda: Iran has about 92 million people (the figure Tucker Carlson put to Senator Ted Cruz, as the Austin American-Statesman reported), and its active-duty forces are estimated by the International Institute for Strategic Studies at about 570,000, with 350,000 reserves (as quoted by the World Socialist Web Site, July 16, 2026). Retired General Philip Breedlove noted on Fox that the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a much smaller country, "required more than 300,000 US troops."

Why these clips matter to an American family​

A hostile government's threats are not a forecast. But put them beside the other clips in this section:

  • An Israeli English-language newspaper, the Jerusalem Post, published a column estimating a ground war would need "between 750 thousand and 1.5 million American troops" (Recruiting page).
  • Israel's prime minister said a revolution in Iran needs "a ground component" and would not say whose; Israel's own press explained why it would not be Israeli (Netanyahu on Camera).
  • The Pentagon drew up plans for weeks of ground raids (Pentagon ground plans).

The people describing the slaughterhouse are Iranian officials. The people proposing to send Americans into it are writing in Israeli papers and planning in Washington. The people who would walk into it are American 19-year-olds.

Status: Abbas Araghchi, Mohsen Rezaee, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and Philip Breedlove are alive. The unnamed ambassador and spokespeople are not identified in the sources.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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