Work From Home (WFH), or working remotely, gained an outsize prominence during the pandemic. American soldiers in the Middle East are reportedly living a version of it in the Iran war, which is in its fourth week.
Iran's bombing of the US bases in the region in retaliation for the US-Israeli war has forced many American troops to relocate to hotels and office spaces throughout the region, NYT reported quoting military personnel and American officials.
According to NYT, much of the land-based military is fighting the war while working remotely. The exception being the fighter pilots and crews operating and maintaining warplanes and conducting strikes.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), an elite branch of Iran's military, has urged people to report these new locations as it hunts for the dispersed troops.
US military officials say that threat is not stopping the Pentagon from carrying out the war against Iran, which began at the end of February when the joint US-Israeli air strikes assassinated its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, hosting his first monthly Christian worship service at the Pentagon since the Iran war began, prayed Wednesday.
"I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and did not turn back till they were consumed," he read from the Psalms, during the livestreamed service.
But the relocation of troops to makeshift - one official called them "alternative" - sites raises questions about the Trump administration's preparations for the war, NYT reported.
Despite a punishing air campaign, the Iranians "still retain some capability," Gen Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged in the Pentagon news conference last week.
Iranian officials have accused the US military of using civilians as human shields by putting American troops in hotels.
"We are forced to identify and target the Americans," the intelligence arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said in a message to people in the region, according to Tasnim News Agency. "Therefore, it is better not to shelter them in hotels and to stay away from their locations."
Lt Col Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesperson for the Iranian military's Khatam Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, which jointly commands Iran's regular military and paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, issued a warning.
"Considering that all American bases in the region have been eliminated, American commanders and soldiers have fled and taken refuge in hideouts outside the bases and we are searching for them. We ask the people of the countries in the region to report their hiding places and at the same time demand the expulsion of Americans from the region for their own security," the military spokesperson said.
Iran responded forcefully to the joint American and Israeli strikes, targeting not only US bases but also embassies and oil and gas infrastructure throughout the region. Tehran launched hundreds of drones and missiles into neighbouring countries and largely shuttered the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route, making sure the war would be felt by people across the globe.
Many of the 13 military bases in the region used by American troops are all but uninhabitable, with the ones in Kuwait, which is next door to Iran, suffering perhaps the most damage.
Trump is pressing on with military operations against Iran even as he examines "newfound" diplomatic options, the White House said Tuesday, after the US president announced talks with Tehran and Pakistan emerged as a possible mediator.
Trump said Tuesday that negotiations with Iran to end the Middle East war were underway "right now," adding Tehran wants to make a deal "so badly."
However, Iranian authorities have denied there are any negotiations, direct or indirect.
Military spokesperson Lt Col Ebrahim Zolfaghari, omnipresent on television and described as a "war phenomenon", mocked Trump in a video statement widely broadcast on state television, remarking that the US president was "negotiating with himself".
"Have your internal conflicts reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves?" he said.
In recent days, Zolfaghari has attracted particular attention by altering one of Trump's signature catchphrases to: "Trump, you're fired!"
Iranian newspapers on Wednesday ridiculed what they called Donald Trump's "lies" about ongoing diplomatic discussions to end the war, publishing cartoons of the US president styled as Pinocchio.
A caricature of Trump with an elongated nose looming over a map of the Strait of Hormuz appeared on the front page of the conservative daily Javan.
The daily accused Trump of lying to calm the markets and push down oil prices, which have surged since Israel and the United States launched hostilities on February 28.
Since Iran's denial, "oil and gas prices have risen once again", the paper noted, comparing Trump to "a gambler in a slump" in a war he believed he could win quickly, like a lucky hand of poker.
Despite claims by Trump that negotiations with Iran were underway and the conflict could soon end, the Pentagon is expected to deploy troops from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East, according to CBS News.
Citing a US official, CBS reported that the deployment could involve fewer than 1,500 troops.
They would join thousands of Marines due to arrive in the Middle East by Friday, the latest deadline set by Trump for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The deployments mean units of the most battle-ready US ground troops will soon be in the region, it said.
The 82nd Airborne Division can deploy anywhere in the world within 18 hours and specialises in "forcible entry parachute assaults" that clear the way for follow-on military action, according to its website.
"The movement of the 82nd opens the door for President Trump to try to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by force, seize Iran's strategic islands or coastline or launch a mission to capture the regime's highly enriched uranium should he choose to do so," the Journal reported.
