There are many things to say about last night’s American bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear program, and specifically about the shadow of the Iraq War on today’s foreign policy debates. I found this to be a particularly notable passage from Donald Trump’s remarks last night:

For 40 years, Iran has been saying, “Death to America, death to Israel.” They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs, with roadside bombs. That was their specialty. We lost over 1,000 people and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East, and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate in particular. So many were killed by their general, Qasem Soleimani. I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen. It will not continue.

We have, of course, lost many Americans to Iranian war and terrorism over the past 45 years, including the hundreds of U.S. Marine peacekeepers killed by truck bombs in Beirut in 1983. But by mentioning “roadside bombs,” Trump is specifically talking about Iraq. The bane of U.S. military operations since 1945 in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq has been enemies across the border that made war on us while we did not make war on them. Had the U.S. faced only Iraqi opposition, the war in Iraq would have been very different — and Iran, having the longest border with Iraq (and a border with Afghanistan) was the largest third-party foreign participant. For years, critics of the war downplayed the extent to which U.S. military deaths in Iraq were Iran’s doing. To his credit, Trump has not forgotten.