“It is difficult not to see the looming crisis on Iran through any other optics other than our experience in Iraq. So much of the commentary on the left is falling into this trap. ‘We got it wrong on WMD in Iraq so we can’t and shouldn’t believe what we are told on Iran.’

Yes, we should all be more exacting in the questions we ask after the painful lessons from the flawed intelligence on Iraq. But if this means we fail to take the threat of Iran seriously we will be making a terrible mistake. The memories of Iraq are fuelling some basic misconceptions over Iran that need to be cleared up. We are not and should not ‘sleep walk’ into a war, but if we take the military option off the table, we may paradoxically bring a conflict closer.”

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