Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday drew similarities between the US's air strikes in Iran this weekend and the invasion of Iraq in 2003, telling a Texas crowd that "we cannot let history repeat itself." The progressive Vermont senator, speaking at a town hall in Fort Worth as part of his "Fighting Oligarchy" tour, highlighted how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump used similar language around the strikes in Iran to what Netanyahu and then-President George W. Bush said surrounding the US's invasion of Iraq in 2003. Sanders quoted a Netanyahu congressional testimony from 2002, in which the Israeli leader said, "There is no question that Saddam [Hussein] is seeking nuclear weapons." Sanders then emphasized how "George Bush said, 'Saddam's regime is seeking a nuclear bomb,' and he argued for a preemptive attack," referencing an analogy by the then-president that the United States could not afford to wait for "the smoking gun which could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." "No weapons of mass destruction were ever found," Sanders continued. "That war was based on a lie. A lie that cost us 4,500 young Americans, 32,000 wounded and trillions of dollars." Bush in 2003 announced the invasion of Iraq under the pretext of disarming it from weapons of mass destruction, a claim that was later debunked. Netanyahu and Trump have both cited the threat posed by Iran's nuclear program, with the US president saying Saturday from the White House, "Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's No. 1 state sponsor of terror." Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, told the Texas crowd, "Brothers and sisters, we cannot let history repeat itself. The United States faces enormous problems here at home. We should be spending our money and our manpower rebuilding America, not going into a war against Iran." — CNN
