US military seeks "creative and unconventional" ideas to pressure Iran - report
A senior US Central Command officer emailed military analysts requesting new ideas to "pressure and punish Iran," according to CNN sources
According to anonymous sources who spoke with CNN, an officer in US Central Command's intelligence branch sent out a message on Wednesday to a broad group of military analysts asking them for "new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran." Military officials said the crowdsourcing-style request was unusual over email, but CENTCOM spokesperson Capt. Timothy Hawkins defended the message, stating that CENTCOM has a "long history of thinking and working in innovative ways."
Two sources familiar with the planning said the military has been actively preparing to launch strikes on Pickaxe Mountain and other Iranian sites believed to contain nuclear material or equipment, but missiles and bombs alone are unlikely to destroy the deeply buried facilities, and reaching them would likely require ground troops, a risk Trump has been unwilling to take.
Eighteen US service members have been killed in the fighting so far.
Both the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency have assessed that the current bombing campaign is unlikely to shift Iran's negotiating position. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine told lawmakers last month, "Air power has its limits." One source said Trump has held off on a CENTCOM plan for one to two weeks of heavy bombardment targeting Iran's missile capabilities, in part due to Caine's concerns about dwindling supplies of air defense interceptors, along with worries about civilian casualties from strikes on infrastructure like bridges and water desalination plants.