Retired four-star Gen. Jack Keane is pitching a bold new twist on the war with Iran, and it is sure to spark debate. The Fox News strategic analyst argues that the United States and Israel already have the air power needed to dramatically change the fight inside the country. His proposal: Iranians take up arms against IRGC facilities while American and Israeli aircraft cover them from above and hit any regime reinforcements sent to crush them. Keane says the sight of successful uprisings in several places could pull tens of thousands more people into the streets, snowballing the pressure on Tehran's leadership. In his view, Washington is making the challenge harder than it needs to be.

The idea lands at a tense moment, with the on-again, off-again U.S.-Iran war still unresolved, President Trump publicly rejecting Iran's seven-day proposal, and a Wall Street Journal report saying he expects to resume bombing after the November midterms. Earlier this week, Keane predicted that major combat operations are inevitable, pairing the blockade and economic pressure with strikes by Israel and the U.S. and covert Mossad and CIA efforts to encourage Iranian citizens to resist and even take up arms. Asked recently whether the CIA would arm Iranians to help them rise up, Trump declined to say, though he acknowledged the deadly repression that protesters face from the regime. Keane's plan has not been announced as U.S. policy, and it carries obvious risks, including harsh crackdowns on civilians and the chance of a wider escalation. Iranian officials, for their part, have vowed to answer any new aggression with force.