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After the U.S. killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Qasem Soleimani on Thursday, many Republicans expressed simple satisfaction at the killing, with some also predicting that the drone strike wasn't only the morally correct course of action, but would actually cause greater, not less, peace within the region. an honest number of the Republicans offering such assurances — or a minimum of not outlining the possible downsides of such a rash move — were key voices back in 2003, when George W. Bush’s administration invaded Iraq, setting off the debacle that not-so-indirectly led to Thursday’s events. Not everyone who was a cheerleader some time past is onboard today; David Frum, who coined the phrase “axis of evil” as Bush’s speechwriter and has since become a fanatical critic of President Trump, appeared to voice skepticism that the Trump administration features a plan for the aftermath of its decision. But he was an exception. Below, a quick rundown of Iraq War fans who are singing an identical tune on Iran.

Ari Fleischer

During the 2003 invasion, Fleischer served as George W. Bush’s press secretary, proving a master of deflection and dissembling because the invasion spun out of control. whilst neoconservative foreign-policy views have fallen out of fashion with the increase of President Trump, Fleischer has hardly pivoted in his views within the years since. On Thursday night on Fox News, Fleischer echoed a notorious Iraq War prediction from then Vice-President Dick Cheney — and his own prophecy from that point that American forces would be greeted as “liberators.”

John Bolton

One of the foremost intervention-friendly figures within the Republican Party , Bolton is that the rare one that still thinks invading Iraq was an honest idea, having championed the thought because the chair of a neoconservative group as early as 1998. Though he was pushed out as national security adviser to President Trump last year, in large part over his pugilistic style — and has been critical of what he sees because the administration’s weakness on North Korea — he cheered Thursday’s attack, and hailed it as a possible initiative toward “regime change.”

Karl Rove

While indirectly involved in policy , Rove helped sell the war from a domestic perspective, most significantly because the leader of George W. Bush’s reelection campaign in 2004. Hours after the Soleimani strike, he was on Fox News (along with Bolton) explaining the intricacies of policy as if he had unblemished credibility on the difficulty .

Lindsey Graham

A regime-change fan to rival Bolton, Graham was an enthusiastic proponent of war with Iraq in 2003. But in 2019, he’s far more powerful than he was some time past , and Graham has been nudging his once-rival, now BFF, President Trump. Throughout Trump’s first term, the South Carolina senator has consistently pushed the president to require even more aggressive action on Iran. Graham, who said he was briefed on the Soleimani mission beforehand (unlike senior Democrats or America’s closest allies abroad), framed the killing as a defense but has not raised the likelihood that the Iranians might not see it that way.

The Cheneys

So far, former Vice-President Dick Cheney, who helped mastermind the Iraq invasion, has not commented on Soleimani’s killing. But his daughter, who has inherited her father’s taste for regime change, is predictably beat .

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