This is as true for those who oppose the war as for the people launching it. The most simpleminded of these expressions is “This is Iraq all over again!”—an interpretation that the Trump administration has clumsily reinforced by comparing the initial bombing campaign to the opening moments of the Gulf War and the Iraq War. In this case, the Iraq analogy is shorthand for saying, “Yes, the opening phase is going swimmingly, but before you know it, the United States will be caught in the middle of a protracted land campaign against multiple insurgents that will inflict thousands of casualties and leave Iran even worse off than it was before.”