The Pentagon just admitted—with about as much subtlety as a bomb going off—that it’s fast running out of ideas for Donald Trump’s war on Iran.
“We are looking for new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran,” a member of the intelligence branch of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) pleaded in an email blast to military analysts last Wednesday, according to CNN.
The network notes that the “crowdsourcing-style” query speaks to just how badly the Trump administration is scrambling to put an end to the conflict Trump promised would last “a few weeks,” and which has now entered its sixth month.
The 80-year-old president signed a memorandum of understanding for a stay of hostilities on June 17 while negotiators worked out terms for a lasting peace. The temporary arrangement saw Iran promise to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway in the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of global oil supply passes.
The U.S. pledged in exchange to lift sanctions, unfreeze assets, and underwrite billions of dollars in reconstruction. Even Republicans balked at the terms of the deal, which lasted just 21 days before negotiations collapsed and Iran resumed attacks on vessels in the waterway.
The president declared his ceasefire “over” at a NATO summit on July 8. Things have only escalated in the weeks since, with Tehran firing its latest barrage of strikes against U.S. military assets in Jordan last Monday.
American forces stationed in the region responded by Wednesday night, launching what CENTCOM has described as a “heavy wave” of attacks against targets in Iran. The country’s state media reported explosions in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas and on the islands of Kish and Qeshm in the Persian Gulf. A couple and their 2-year-old child are thought to have been killed.
CENTCOM’s frantic email plea went out that morning. Trump eventually called off any further strikes after an intervention from Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, who called the president personally and asked him to scale down the hostilities.
The Pentagon’s effort to workshop ideas for how to bring Trump’s war to an end comes after signs the department is fast running out of the munitions stockpiles it would need to continue the conflict at its current rate.
Current and former officials at the Department of Defense told the Washington Post last month that training and maintenance are now being scaled down to save cash as the administration begs Congress to fork over $67 billion to make up the shortfall caused by the war.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Pentagon for comment on this story. “U.S. Central Command has a long history of thinking and working in innovative ways,” a spokesperson for CENTCOM told CNN in a statement.
