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Repeating Iraq War PROPAGANDA Again // Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald | Trusted Newsmaker
Here we are again. Different year, different country, but the exact same script. The only real surprise is how quickly and easily the American political class—and large chunks of the public—have fallen for it again. This time the target is Iran. And just like Iraq in 2002, the justification is built on a foundation of outright deception and war propaganda.
We’re being told, daily and breathlessly, that Iran is “weeks away” from acquiring nuclear weapons. That it has the means, the intent, the capability. That it must be stopped. That we, as Americans, are somehow “obligated” to join in this campaign—not just with money and weapons, but potentially with lives.
All of this should sound familiar. In fact, it is familiar—because we’ve been here before. In September 2002, less than six months before the invasion of Iraq, the American public was bombarded with claims about Saddam Hussein’s supposed WMDs, centrifuges, and nuclear ambitions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—yes, the same one now demanding action against Iran—testified before Congress, gave interviews, made the rounds, and urged the U.S. to strike Iraq. He guaranteed that it would usher in a wave of peace and democracy. He promised it would transform the region.
It did—just not in the way he predicted. It unleashed two decades of death, destruction, failed states, and the rise of ISIS. Yet here he is again, reading from the exact same playbook. And somehow, much of the political establishment is nodding along like it’s 2002 and they haven’t learned a thing.
Let’s start with the most essential fact—one that you’ll never hear on cable news: Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons. That’s not a theory. That’s the assessment of the entire U.S. intelligence community, including Trump’s own hand-picked Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. She testified under oath just months ago that the Supreme Leader of Iran has not reauthorized a nuclear weapons program that was suspended in 2003. That is the current official intelligence position of the United States.
But you’d never know that from the headlines. You’d never know that from Netanyahu’s speeches or from the neocon op-eds flooding the New York Times and Washington Post. What we’re told instead is that Iran is a breath away from annihilating Israel with nuclear weapons—despite the fact that Israel itself has a clandestine nuclear arsenal larger than Britain’s or France’s and refuses to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
So ask yourself: if the goal is to stop nuclear proliferation, why is the country with undeclared nukes demanding war with the country that doesn’t have any?
That question never gets asked. Because it’s not about non-proliferation. It’s not about existential threats. It’s about power. It’s about regime change. And it’s about ensuring that any state in the Middle East that dares to challenge Israeli or U.S. hegemony gets reduced to rubble.
They’re even recycling the rhetorical tactics. Just like Saddam was cast as the next Hitler, now it’s Iran. Now it’s Hamas. Now it’s “the new Nazis.” It’s a rhetorical sleight of hand designed to frame every act of aggression as morally justified, even noble. And just like before, the corporate press and both major U.S. parties are playing along.
Even more astonishing is the complete erasure of what happened last time. The Iraq War was a catastrophe. That’s no longer controversial—it’s mainstream consensus. Yet the very people who led us into that disaster are still in power. Still giving interviews. Still shaping policy. And still calling for more war.
They want us to believe that this time is different. That this time, the intelligence is solid. That this time, the threat is real. But it’s not. It’s the same recycled lie, just dressed up in slightly newer clothes.
What’s even more disturbing is that we now have 20 years of hindsight—and yet the American public, particularly in the political center, seems just as susceptible to manipulation. The emotional machinery is still intact. Invoke 9/11. Invoke the Holocaust. Invoke terror. Invoke mushroom clouds. It still works.
That’s the real scandal. Not just that leaders lie. But that they know they can do it again—and it’ll work. Because the system they operate in refuses to hold them accountable. And because too many people, when confronted with complexity, prefer the false comfort of certainty—especially if it comes wrapped in flags and bombs.
We were told Iraq would be “the first victory,” followed by “the second in Iran.” That failed. Miserably. But here they are again, trying to make it reality—this time with an even more dangerous adversary, in a far more volatile region, with a much more fragile global order.
And still, no one is stopping them.
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