The bombing of the Revolutionary government in Iran is drawing comparisons with the war in Iraq. But the comparisons are with the wrong war.

In 1981 there was an attack on Iraq which much more closely resembles what Donald Trump is trying to achieve in Iran. The story goes back to 1976, when the government of Jacques Chirac in France sold a nuclear reactor to the Iraqis – a deal for which the French have always managed to avoid much criticism. The French charged the Iraqi government twice the going rate. But as one of the Iraqi nuclear team later recalled: “We were happy to pay. After all, who else was going to sell us a nuclear reactor?” Who indeed.

The Iranian side boasted to the US negotiating team that they were weeks away from nuclear breakout

The Iranian side boasted to the US negotiating team that they were weeks away from nuclear breakout

Once Saddam Hussein was in power, he poured resources into the nuclear site at Osirak in his race to be the first holder of an “Arab bomb.” He surrounded the nuclear site with anti-aircraft batteries and by 1981 was close to his dream. That was why, on June 7, 1981, the government of Menachem Begin in Israel deployed jets to destroy the reactor. The Israeli air force’s eight F-16s struck during a mealtime, when the anti-aircraft positions were unmanned. They hit their target and destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in under two minutes.

Naturally the international backlash was immediate. Foreign governments and press condemned the Israeli action as “unprovoked” and sneaky.........

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