In December 1998, Iraq was less than a decade removed from having much of its defenses destroyed during the Persian Gulf War. Not so Iran.

Iraq in the late 1990s didn’t have its weapons buried underneath 200 feet of rock. Iran’s Fordo facility today is.

Iraq wasn’t fighting on the ground in a neighboring country against the same group of Islamic radicals the United States was bombing from the air. Iran is.

Oh yeah, and we ended up invading Iraq within five years, with less than airtight information about Baghdad’s weapons.

To recap: it’s not clear that either the Obama administration’s deal or his more hawkish critics’ alternatives would actually prevent Iran from getting a bomb.

The debate over how to prevent a nuclear Iran is at risk of becoming the domestic equivalent of the Iran-Iraq war, except this time both sides could lose — and it’s a pity.