What’s the Right Historical War Analogy for Iran Conflict?

Plus: Remembering FedEx founder Fred Smith

What Israel is calling “Operation Rising Lion” has some resonance with a symbol of Iran before the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Politicians talking about how to handle Iran are ready with references to previous conflicts. But the most relevant example may be one that has been widely neglected.

In announcing Operation Rising Lion, Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “80 years ago, the Jewish people were the victims of a Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazi regime. Today, the Jewish state refuse to be a victim of a nuclear holocaust perpetrated by the Iranian regime.”

Netanyahu went on to expand on the World War II history. “Nearly a century ago, facing the Nazis, a generation of leaders failed to act in time. They were paralyzed by the horrors of World War I. They were determined to avoid war at all costs. And they got the worst war, ever. They adopted a policy of appeasement. They closed their eyes and ears to all the warning signs. That failure to act resulted in World War II, the deadliest war in history. It claimed the lives of 60 million, including 6 million Jews, a third of my people. After that war, the Jewish people and the Jewish state vowed, ‘never again.’ Well, ‘never again’ is now.”

Now Senator Bernie Sanders, the socialist from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats, is out with a June 22 statement about the American military action against Iran. The Sanders statement doesn’t mention World War II but it does mention the Iraq war and Vietnam war:

In the 1960s the United States government lied to the American people and took us into a terrible war in Vietnam. The result of that war was that over 58,000 young Americans died and many more came back wounded both in mind and in spirit. Millions of Vietnamese were also killed. Hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money was wasted.

In 2002 we were told that we had to go to war against Iraq, that Iraq was building weapons of mass destruction, and that if we did not act quickly and decisively nuclear weapons would fall on America. Among those who told us that was none other than Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, who stated in testimony before Congress: “There is no question whatsoever that Saddam is seeking… nuclear weapons… If you take out Saddam’s regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations.” The United States invaded Iraq and became embroiled in a long civil war there. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found. That war was based on a lie – a lie which cost us 4,492 young Americans, 32,000 wounded, over half a million Iraqis and trillions of dollars.

The American people were lied to about Vietnam, with tragic consequences.

The American people were lied to about Iraq, with tragic consequences.

The American people are being lied to again today. We cannot allow history to repeat itself. The U.S. faces enormous problems here at home, which we must address. We cannot allow ourselves to be dragged into another Middle East war based on lies.

The World War II, Iraq War, and Vietnam War history is all worth thinking about and learning the lessons of. In the cases of Iraq and Vietnam, I see it differently than Sanders, but that’s not the key point. (Tom Friedman makes a good point about this in a new column, observing, “Those who caution against regime change in Tehran often point to Iraq as a cautionary tale. But that analogy is flawed. America’s nation-building effort in Iraq failed for years largely (but not exclusively) because of Iran, not in spite of it. Tehran, with the help of its proxy in Syria, did everything it could to sabotage regime change in Iraq, knowing that if the U.S. was successful in creating a multisectarian, reasonably democratic, secular government in Baghdad, it would be a huge threat to Iran’s theocracy.”)

I can understand Netanyahu dwelling on World War II and appreciate it because it is relevant in some dimensions, including those highlighted by the prime minister.

The most relevant example to the Iran situation, though, may not be either World War II, Iraq, or Vietnam. It could be, instead, the Cold War. Let me explain.