Donald Trump‘s repeated attempts to end the war with Iran have ended in failure every time to the point he is now begging for ideas to save the situation – and his authority.
In an extraordinary move, a senior US military officer from Central Command’s intelligence branch emailed military analysts last week to try and crowdsource ideas for “new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran”, American media reported.
Since he launched his war alongside Israel more than five months ago, the US President has pursued a cycle of aggressive threats, followed each time by a climbdown and promise of talks.
As recently as Sunday he cancelled what he said would have been a “massive” attack on Iran’s military and energy facilities, telling reporters the US and Iran were “all set to go” on talks on a new deal to end the conflict on Monday. Iran, once again, denied any talk with the US were taking place.
But in the face of Iranian resistance and mockery, as well as warnings from Gulf allies, Trump and his self-styled secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, have failed to extricate themselves from a mess that is costing money, lives, and American power.
‘A complete failure of strategic foresight’
The crowdsourcing of ideas by the US military, nearly 160 days after Trump launched the war, is highly unusual and points to the US government’s lack of strategy throughout the conflict.
Centcom is looking at every option, one source who was aware of the crowdsourcing email told CNN, acknowledging the military needed to re-evaluate its strategy.
“US Central Command has a long history of thinking and working in innovative ways,” Captain Timothy Hawkins, a Centcom spokesman, said in a statement. “Admiral Cooper [commander of Centcom], in particular, reaches out to members of our great team, regardless of rank, to achieve the highest levels of operational performance possible.”
Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth arrive for a transfer at Dover Air Force Base for military casualties of the war with Iran on 22 July 2026. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)Yet the email points to the administration’s ever more limited and unpleasant options to extricate itself from a conflict that has so far failed to achieve much of what it set out to.
“The conflict was supposed to last 40-odd days, we’re now over 150 days and we are looking at an administration that’s desperately trying to find a solution and cannot find it within itself,” said Dafydd Townley, senior teaching fellow at the University of Portsmouth and part of the university’s military education team.
“This goes back to the fact that it had no clear objective as to why it got involved in Iran in the first place. It has been a complete failure of strategic foresight from the Trump administration,” Townley told The i Paper.
US troops are asking, ‘what are we achieving?’
One serving US military officer, speaking to The i Paper on condition on anonymity, said: “This whole crowdsourcing thing, it’s very antithetical to the way we traditionally operate from top to bottom. The US military will go out and execute what they’re told to execute as long as it’s legal, moral, ethical. But the feeling of being jaded, frustrated, confused is very, very real. Troops are asking, ‘what are we achieving?’”
The service member added: “Most people in the service, even Trump supporters, consider the guy kind of a clown.”
A former British officer who has served alongside American troops in the Middle East and did not want to be named, highlighted the difference between allowing junior staff to come up with ideas and building a coherent strategy
“It’s very unusual. On one level, you could say it’s heartening that they’re open-minded and willing to engage all ranks, and there’s a long history of entertaining wacky ideas generated from low down that prove quite successful.
“But at another level, it just shows that they are out of options,” he said.
Everybody is afraid to challenge Trump and Hegseth
The lack of strategy is a direct result of the hollowing out of the US foreign policy establishment, and of packing it with loyalists instead of experts.
Since his return to the White House, Trump has made drastic cuts to foreign affairs experts at the US State Department, while an executive order last year directed the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to ensure “faithful and effective implementation” of Trump’s foreign policy.
The effect of losing experienced diplomats who might have been able to reach out to both the Iranians and regional allies has been compounded by Trump and Hegseth removing senior military and intelligence officers who might challenge their worldview leading to a culture that can’t – or won’t – call out bad decisions from the President, according to experts.
“The US, as with other major countries, has developed institutions to produce strategy,” said Marc DeVore senior lecturer in international relations at the University of St Andrews and associate fellow at the think-tank Chatham house. “They’re not always perfect, but when you entirely disregard them, you end up in a strategic cul-de-sac that cool tactical ideas from crowdsourcing are not going to provide the answer to.”
“The problem is if you have everybody in the administration completely loyal to Trump and Hegseth, it becomes group-think where everybody is afraid to challenge the leadership,” said Townley.
Even if officials are brave enough to challenge Trump, he does not appear willing to listen to their advice, said DeVore.
The American public are turning against Trump’s war with Iran according to latest polling. (Photo by U.S. Navy via Getty Images)“It’s not just an issue of the intelligence community not being willing to speak truth to power, but it’s an issue of those in power having a very good ability to tune out unpleasant truths,” he said.
The result of the culture of bowing to Trump’s whims has been “catastrophic” for the US foreign policy process and has left it “hopelessly broken”, DeVore added.
Trump may not realise how stark his choices are
While crowdsourcing ideas might have some impact on the way American forces fight the war, analysts and military officers say that it is unlikely to shift a losing strategy and give Trump the get-out for which he is desperately searching.
“I’m not certain that Trump realises how stark his choices are. I actually can’t comprehend what his understanding of conflict is,” said DeVore.
“Perhaps Trump feels as though he can play his current game – continuing on-again-off-again strikes while announcing imminent deals and making dramatic threats – until after the midterms. Perhaps a confused American public won’t hold him accountable for strategic incompetence under these circumstances?”
But the public may have already made up its mind. Now, 67 per cent of Americans believe that Trump’s decisions about the conflict have hurt the country, according to recent polling.
And as the midterms get closer, and the price of gasoline for Americans ticks up, Iran knows it has the US between a rock and a hard place.
Even if crowdsourcing does turn up a radical new idea, with Iran flexing its new-found power to hold the global economy hostage, it may already be too late.
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