Note to Democrats: War With Iran Is a Monumental Mistake

With Trump seemingly on the cusp of bringing the U.S. military into the conflict, Schumer did, just last night, sign onto a letter telling Trump that “we will not rubberstamp military intervention that puts the United States at risk” and stating that Congress needs “a clear, detailed plan outlining the goals, risks, cost, and timeline for any proposed mission.”

This is better than nothing. But it still suggests that the problems with escalating a conflict with Iran are mostly managerial. And to the extent that this draws any sort of contrast with Trump’s recklessness, such milquetoast proceduralism is largely drowned out by the bellicose rhetoric from many other congressional Democrats who’ve released statements like, “Iran’s nuclear program isn’t just an existential threat to Israel and the Middle East, it’s a threat to the world. Diplomacy has been given every opportunity, but the Iranian regime refuses to give up their nuclear ambitions. I stand with Israel and the rest of the West as we confront this threat together.”

This is the same kind of rhetoric that was used to manufacture consent in the lead-up to the Iraq War. Many of the players are the same too. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a prominent voice urging the United States to invade Iraq in 2002, when he assured Congress, “There is no question whatsoever that Saddam is seeking, is working, is advancing towards the development of nuclear weapons.” He also predicted, “If you take out Saddam’s regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region.”

Netanyahu has been pushing the same arguments about Iran for 25 years. That’s not an exaggeration. Check out this video that CNN made with clips of Netanyahu continuously claiming—beginning all the way back in 1996 and continuing to the present—that Iran is just months away from developing nuclear weapons.