Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman has highlighted an Israeli daily’s proposing the use of debt forgiveness as an incentive for young Americans to enlist in a potential ground war against the Islamic Republic.
“Americans, ask yourselves one question: Why should your sons and daughters be offered debt forgiveness in exchange for fighting and dying in a war Israel wants continued & expanded?” Esmaeil Baghaei wrote in a post on X on Friday after the idea appeared in an article on The Jerusalem Post.
The article, penned by AJ Jaff, a retired Canadian armed forces officer and security analyst, that was published by the paper on August 30, discussed possible ways of generating a larger US military force for such a war and proposed a federally administered debt-forgiveness program as one option.
Jaff wrote that a ground war against Iran would require substantially more US troops than the current number in the active army.
He then proposed debt relief as an alternative to conscription.
“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.’”
Jaff specifically suggested a federally administered program under which 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. The bill provides educational and training support for qualifying veterans, troops, and their family members
“This is not theoretical,” Jaff wrote. “The economics of the indebted American 20-and 30-something make this the most efficient conversion mechanism available” to the US Department of War and the Trump administration, he added.
Baghaei, however, noted how the idea amounted to trifling with ordinary Americans’ lives.
“Your lives. Your taxes. Someone else’s war,” he wrote.
“Do not let anyone turn you into the cannon fodder – and the bill – for a war you never chose,” the official went on. “Do not let anyone turn your children into mercenaries for their illegal ‘war of choice’.”
