{"id":8269,"date":"2026-08-03T04:09:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T04:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=8269"},"modified":"2026-08-03T04:09:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T04:09:47","slug":"exclusive-us-military-asks-troops-for-creative-and-unconventional-ideas-to-punish-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=8269","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: US military asks troops for \u2018creative and unconventional\u2019 ideas to punish Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n The request from a senior officer at the US military command carrying out President Donald Trump\u2019s war with Iran came in an email: We need ideas.\n <\/p>

Read more Democratic socialists face a prove-it moment in battleground Wisconsin<\/a><\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe are looking for new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran,\u201d an officer in US Central Command\u2019s intelligence branch wrote in a message sent Wednesday to a broad group of military analysts, according to a source familiar with the message. A second source also said that a senior US military officer sent the message last week soliciting new ideas for how to deal with Iran.\n <\/p>\n

\n The crowdsourcing-style query, which military officials said was unusual over email, is one sign of the limited \u2014 and potentially unpalatable \u2014options available to Trump to force Iran into a deal on his terms. Hoping to find an alternative, the official at CENTCOM kicked off the brainstorming session via email to see if anyone had a better idea. The second source said CENTCOM is looking at everything, acknowledging it needs to reevaluate the strategy.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cU.S. Central Command has a long history of thinking and working in innovative ways,\u201d Capt. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesperson for CENTCOM, said in a statement. \u201cAdmiral Cooper, in particular, reaches out to members of our great team, regardless of rank, to achieve the highest levels of operational performance possible.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The email preceded Trump\u2019s threat to launch new strikes against Iran, only to call them off over the weekend weekend after regional officials \u2014 namely Saudi Arabia\u2019s crown prince \u2014 intervened by calling the president and urging him to de-escalate.\n <\/p>\n

\n For weeks, the US has hammered Iran with air strikes designed to degrade its ability to threaten shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and to bring Tehran back to the negotiating table, but there\u2019s still no sign of a deal.\n <\/p>\n

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\"Smoke<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n
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\nSmoke rises following explosion at an unknown location, during what CENTCOM says are strikes on Iran, in this screengrab taken from a handout video released on July 29, 2026.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
U.S. Central Command\/Handout\/Reuters<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Trump has been weighing intensifying the military campaign, potentially by relaunching intense strikes on Iran\u2019s remaining nuclear facilities, which he claimed had been \u201cobliterated\u201d in strikes last summer. Two sources familiar with the planning say the military has been actively preparing to launch strikes on Pickaxe Mountain and other Iranian sites believed to contain either nuclear material or equipment.\n <\/p>\n

\n But even with America\u2019s most powerful conventional weapons, those sources say, missiles and bombs alone are unlikely to achieve much because the facilities are buried deeply underground. To destroy them, the US would likely need to use ground troops \u2014 a tremendous risk that Trump has been unwilling to take \u2014 amid questions about his administration\u2019s transparency over service member casualties. Eighteen US service members have been killed in the fighting so far.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump has been considering strikes akin to a \u201cfireworks\u201d display, another source said, which could hit either the same or similar sites as those targeted a year ago, in the hopes of a symbolic victory that would allow him to exit the war without actually accomplishing one of his initial aims: ridding Iran of its nuclear program.\n <\/p>\n

\n And it\u2019s unlikely that would resolve what has become the war\u2019s central issue: Iranian claims over the Strait of Hormuz.\n <\/p>

Read more Sen. Bernie Moreno says former son-in-law Max Miller \u2018should not serve\u2019 in Congress over abuse allegations<\/a><\/p>\n

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\nA man sits on a surfboard as a container ship and other commercial vessels appear anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, on July 27, 2026.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Razieh Poudat\/ISNA\/AP<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n \u201cAt the end of the day, POTUS will want a deal, so he\u2019ll continually look for ways to get tough and get out of this,\u201d said one of the sources familiar with recent planning discussions.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou need creative minds at times \u2014 especially if you\u2019re running out of conventional options.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Both the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency have recently assessed that the kind of bombing the US is carrying out is unlikely to shift the Iranian negotiating position, CNN has reported.\n <\/p>\n

\n The president\u2019s most senior military adviser, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, has acknowledged publicly that bombing alone is unlikely to accomplish all Trump\u2019s previously stated objectives for the war.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAir power has its limits,\u201d Caine told lawmakers last month.\n <\/p>\n

\n Options for escalating the conflict have been presented to Trump for months and debated at length, and more military assets have flowed to the region in anticipation of a go-ahead from the president. One plan conceived by CENTCOM would involve heavy bombardment over the course of one or two weeks to take out Iran\u2019s missile capabilities, US officials said.\n <\/p>\n

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\nAn F\/A-18E Super Hornet launches off the flight deck of the USS George HW Bush, in the US 5th Fleet area of operations, which includes the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea, on July 15, 2026.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
US Navy<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Trump has so far held off, in part after hearing concerns from Caine about dwindling supplies of air defense interceptors. Other officials have also raised worries about the risks of high civilian casualties if Trump followed through on threats to strike infrastructure sites like bridges and water desalination plants.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump could escalate by putting American boots on the ground, a threat he\u2019s made repeatedly as he\u2019s talked about occupying the strategic Kharg Island or removing Iran\u2019s highly enriched uranium. But that would further break a key promise he made to his MAGA base: \u201cI will not send you to fight and die in stupid foreign wars that never ends,\u201d he said during a 2024 campaign rally in Pennsylvania.\n <\/p>\n

\n Or he could accept a dangerous status quo: endless rounds of strikes and counterstrikes with Iran that are likely to cost further American lives and leave the Strait of Hormuz in a state of constant peril that could resemble the \u201cforever wars\u201d he has criticized.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think we just want to win,\u201d Trump said during a Cabinet meeting Friday when asked about concluding the war. \u201cWe\u2019ll be hitting them very hard, and you know, at some point, they\u2019re going to say, \u2018We just can\u2019t take it anymore.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>

Read more RFK Jr. targets Fauci and pushes medical misinformation in fiery CNN interview<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The request from a senior officer at the US military command carrying out President Donald Trump\u2019s war with Iran came in an email: We need ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nExclusive: US military asks troops for \u2018creative and unconventional\u2019 ideas to punish Iran - Relocation Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=8269\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exclusive: US military asks troops for \u2018creative and unconventional\u2019 ideas to punish Iran - 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