The Iran War Is Far Too Reminiscent of Iraq

Explore three reasons why.

By: Austin Abbring

May 17, 2026

Damaged site from ongoing war in Iran

If the war in Iran reminds you of another conflict from a little over two decades ago in the Middle East, then you would be one hundred percent correct. While there are some contrasts and this is a unique situation, several similarities between the two geopolitical conflicts warrant examination. In the case of Iran, we here in the U.S. are unfortunately left with an even more inept administration hoisting the reins. This is something I thought would be difficult to top Bush-Cheney on. 

1) United States Justifications for War

Let us begin with the clearest and most dubious parallel, and that is our justification (or lack thereof) for this war. You may be asking yourself why the Trump administration has decided to engage us in this war. This is an extremely difficult question to answer, as we continue to get different explanations from the president and just about every cabinet member. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance claim Iran was just moments away from developing a nuclear warhead and that we must destroy those capabilities. You know, that old chestnut. A chestnut that has been cited for roughly four decades. 

Pete Hegseth insists this is not a war and that we are administering a necessary regime change. Ignore the fact that war-mongering Pete has used the word “war” as terminology to describe this conflict multiple times now. Please also ignore how “effective” regime change led by U.S. intervention has been in the Middle East since the inception of Israel. Speaking of Israel, Marco Rubio led with a complete wildcard of a justification. He claims we knew Israel was going to engage militarily with Iran, and that Iran would retaliate against both the United States and Israel (DOS). The classic preemptive rationale. 

You may be noticing a pattern: the accounts are inconsistent. You may also be wondering, "Is it true? Is Iran that close to developing a nuclear weapon?” No. No, they are not. This is where we reach the summit of parallels between this engagement and ours with Iraq. 

Flashback to 2002, and you begin to hear the rumblings from Israeli intelligence. They insisted Iraq is stockpiling WMDs (weapons of mass destruction). These assertions turned out to be false. These assertions were the primary reason for the Bush administration launching its invasion. We were left with an 8-year war, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed, thousands of U.S. servicemen and women dead, and an even more destabilized region. Flash forward to present-day 2026, and Benjamin Netanyahu (the Israeli Prime Minister) is insisting Iran is weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon. Incidentally, this is a claim he has been making since at least the early 1990’s. Let me reiterate, Iran is not near developing a nuclear weapon.

To create a nuclear warhead, one must obtain an enriched uranium stockpile of at least 90%. According to the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), Iran is at 60%. Now, one may be concerned that Iran has begun to increase their enriched uranium levels. Just hold that discomfort for a moment. Donald Trump, in his infinite wisdom, withdrew the United States from the JCPOA. This was the landmark nuclear deal made under the Obama administration, which capped Iran’s enriched uranium at 3.5% (State Department). Per our own intelligence and the IAEA's hundreds of independent inspections, Iran was complying with the deal. Trump’s perilous decision to tear up the JCPOA is exactly why Iran has countered by rebuilding their uranium stockpile, as it should at this point. 

Almost perfectly synchronous with Iraq, we are left with a complete void in justification for war. Once more, we have an incompetent administration fumbling all over the place, attempting to coordinate the American people into a collective agreement for their actions. The American people should be insulted because we have seen this movie before. 

2) Glaring Lack of Clear Objectives

Again, similar to the lack of clear justification for escalation, there are no clear or concise long-term objectives. Let’s cover one of the commonly cited objectives: destroying this regime. In the early stages of joint American and Israeli strikes on Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed. He was replaced by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei. Iran clearly had a contingency plan for Ali Khamenei, as he was 86 years old at the time of his assassination. We will not be able to topple a regime by picking off one leader at a time. This has been an extremely medieval line of thinking. If your objective is to topple another country and force capitulation, soldiers on the ground are a requirement. Donald Trump and his administration can threaten total annihilation of the Iranian military and the genocide of its people all they want, but they will have to go further than drone strikes to achieve their goals. Deploying soldiers is an extremely unpopular proposition, as it should be. United States soldiers should not be used as cannon fodder in a pointless escalation with no acceptable exit strategy.

This unfortunately lines up perfectly with Iraq war rhetoric from the Bush administration. The Iraq goals were supposed to be our swift military action, not the quagmire it became. We were supposed to quickly replace the regime and instill democracy. The Bush war plan featured a severe misunderstanding of the societal structures of Iraq and the insurgent uprisings that followed. We continue to underestimate the people and militaries of Middle Eastern countries. Again, as we will face when we de-escalate with Iran, the exit of this is going to be disastrous. We will be leaving behind a government and people more destabilized and with more animosity towards the United States than before we illegally struck their country.

3) Racism and Islamophobia

A tale many Americans are all far too familiar with. The Trump administration has heavily pushed a dehumanization effort of the Iranians, coupled with the painting of this as a “holy war”. Senator Lindsey Graham and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have proclaimed that we are fighting an immoral and fanatical enemy and that it is “God’s plan” for us to eliminate them from this Earth. Donald Trump sarcastically suggested, “praise be to Allah” in a post demanding Iran open the Strait of Hormuz. Donald Trump has also described the Iranians as “animals” and is unabashed when it comes to threatening war crimes.

This all coincides with the rhetoric the Bush administration used when describing the Iraqis. George Bush conflated Muslim and Arab populations with terrorism. He and Republican leaders portrayed them as “less than” people. This, in conjunction with the horrific racism Americans engaged in towards these populations following the September 11th attacks. This framework sought to persuade Americans of the necessity of delivering democracy to Iraq. Bush insisted on a dehumanization of Iraqi civilian casualties. Far too similar to Trump’s dehumanization of Iranians. America wouldn’t miss 92 million people on the other side of the world if it wiped them out. They are a primitive nation after all, right?

We must not repeat the same mistakes we made over twenty years ago. This time, there was no congressional approval. You can at least give “credit” to the Bush administration for that before their illegal invasion of Iraq. We have no support from our allies. We have no realistic motives and no clear exit strategy. There have been no concessions. What we do have is a government asking you to ignore your eyes and ears.