US military asks troops for ‘creative and unconventional’ ideas to punish Iran

CNN ^ | April 3, 2026 | Katie Lills

[Miami Rebel]

The request from a senior officer at the US military command carrying out President Donald Trump’s war with Iran came in an email: We need ideas.

“We are looking for new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran,” an officer in US Central Command’s 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.

The crowdsourcing-style query, which military officials said was unusual over email, is one sign of the limited — and potentially unpalatable —options 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.

“U.S. Central Command has a long history of thinking and working in innovative ways,” Capt. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesperson for CENTCOM, said in a statement. “Admiral Cooper, in particular, reaches out to members of our great team, regardless of rank, to achieve the highest levels of operational performance possible.”

The email preceded Trump’s threat to launch new strikes against Iran, only to call them off over the weekend weekend after regional officials — namely Saudi Arabia’s crown prince — intervened by calling the president and urging him to de-escalate.

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’s still no sign of a deal.

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TOPICS: Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: commienewsnetwork; herecomethetrolls; humour; iran; war

[Miami Rebel]

This “Bomb them back to the Stone Age” line is a hackneyed cliché.

We’re not going to destroy a nation of 95 million, many of whom have suffered grievously under the regime. Aside from which, the most massive bombing raids (short of nukes) have historically had inconclusive results.

[Libloather]

Water cannons. Bonus points in the winter.

[FlyingEagle]

Easy.

1 - blow up all highway and rail bridges in/out of Iran
2 - destroy every port wharf and dock and sink every tiny boat
3 - blow up every refinery, terminal and pipeline
4 - destroy every power generation station

And this will bring them to their knees:

1 - take away their cell phones
2 - hide the Remote

Those last two are guaranteed to bring regime change.

[The Louiswu]

[jeffersondem]

“drop millions of leaflets. Good, old-fashioned, low-tech leaflets”

Building on that: drop pallets of counterfeit Iranian money into the streets. Force the government to implement and manage rationing on the already disgruntled population.

[wastedyears]

They only hated us after our government forced regime change.

[muir_redwoods]

Begin spraying Iranian military sites and farmlands with liquified pig fat
Infect herds of sheep and goats wth gonorrhea
Drop plane loads of pictures of Rep Rosa DeLauro
Drop plane loads of Taylor Swift CDs
Leave cases of Bud Lite in the desert

[Brian Griffin]

31 Iranian refineries + 31 Israeli missiles -> motor fuel shortages

FR defeatists will tell you Iran is a big country.

[blueunicorn6]

Show that their religion and religious leaders have failed them.

[Brian Griffin]

“cell phones”

Trump calling, translated into Farsi,....

[Tell It Right]

Inject their goats with STDs. That’ll stifle the men.

[spintreebob]

Divide and conquer is often the best approach to an enemy.
Find ways to divide the other side over issues, over money, over egos, over religion, over both significant and insignificant differences.

Avoid actions that unite the enemy...that treat them as “all the same”.

[Da Coyote]

They’ll get some good ideas for sure, but if the military asks for ideas on how to punish CNN, their servers will be overloaded. Any military member believing that pile of trash should be sent back to boot camp.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

List of dams and reservoirs in Iran

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dams_and_reservoirs_in_Iran

“As of 2010, Iran has constructed 588 dams (big and small), with 137 more under construction and 546 planned.”

Dam busting tech strongly needs to be updated. Dams provide Iran with two essential things: reserved water and hydroelectric power, mostly used to support their nuclear program. So the strategic plan to dam bust is “where the money” is.

[blueunicorn6]

Get a bunch of cheap, noisy drones.

Fly them low over the villages and towns at night.

Not to bomb anything.

Not to take photos.

Just low and loud at night.

[Vermont Lt]

Karhg Island. Cut it off.

Close the air ports.

Blow up the trains.

Start shooting up 18 wheelers.

Starve them.

[Wallace T.]

Nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki impelled the Japanese emperor and military high command to surrender. However, the United States is not the only country to possess these weapons, unlike in 1945. The Pakistanis, Indians, and Israelis have them, as do Russia and China. Taking out Tehran this way would cause Pakistan to strike back, maybe on Bahrain, maybe on Tel Aviv. The Israelis and the Indians would retaliate with nuclear weapons against the Pakistanis. Russia would use this action to take out Odessa and Kiev. Then Russia and China would threaten either to blackmail the United States and NATO to back away or threaten a worldwide nuclear holocaust.

American first use of nuclear weapons would open a can of worms that would result in a disaster unparalleled in recorded history.

[bobbo666]

Typical CNN lies.

Want to end this forever? Drop millions of small arms to the Persian citizens. Let the 40,000 families of murdered demonstrators hunt down every IRGC member.
An armed populace cannot be oppressed. The US keeps forgetting that.

[Engraved-on-His-hands]

LOLOL!

[Miami Rebel]

Where’s the lie??