The rhetoric surrounding the war with Iran echoes the propaganda used to justify Iraq – a conflict that cost the life of the author’s husband, FLT Paul Pardoel.

Selling a product begins with a catchy slogan. Military operations are much the same. ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’ glorified violent liberation to a mass audience to justify war. Operation ‘Epic Fury’ glorifies death and destruction, to justify war for personal gratification. Both wars – Iraq then and Iran now – are grounded in the same imperial hubris and delusional thinking; that they are justified, necessary and victorious.

The spectre of the Iraq war looms large with the unfolding war in Iran. How can it not? The language of imminent threats, evil regimes, pre-emptive strikes, regime change and the casual or cavalier swagger of human suffering sound hauntingly similar. Familiar narratives that obscure a determination to wage unlawful, unnecessary and unethical wars of choice.

The trajectory for war in Iraq was set quickly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. As the story goes, old neocons from Gulf War 1, still stalking the halls of the White House, saw their chance. Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, pissed that George Bush Senior didn’t take out Saddam Hussein when he had the chance, eagerly asked if the US could now finish him off.

Fear and security concerns after 9/11 were understandable and had a legitimate place at the political table. But centring the response on Iraq did not. Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction (WMD) nor did he have a relationship with Al-Qaeda. Contrary to the intelligence at that time Bush and Blair – and with Howard tagging along – wilfully executed a criminal and catastrophic war.

To sell it, they unleashed a year-long propaganda campaign. Flogging patriotism ad nauseum, with jingoistic jingles to rally us round our various national flags as if our lives depended on it. War in Iraq became a compulsory product for consumption.

The global peace protests – the largest in history – with placards painted in living rooms were no match for the mighty PR state machinery. American exceptionalism and hegemonic violence were going to save us and in turn we would save the Iraqi people. A violent but noble cause.

Despite two bites at the cherry presenting their case to the United Nations, Bush and Blair failed to secure approval at the UN Security Council. But the relentless neoconservative marketing drive to build consensus paid off anyway. The US Congress and UK Parliament bought the war hook, line and sinker. In Australia, despite deep public opposition, the Howard government eagerly followed Washington into war.

At the time, Albanese and Wong, under the leadership of Simon Crean took a stance against the war. Marles later in an article on The Guardian agreed with them: “the [anti-Iraq war] position that Labor took at the time, has been vindicated”.

They were right to take a firm stand. The war cost the lives of 600,000 Iraqis, thousands of armed service members, including hundreds of allied forces, whose sacrifices Trump has shit-talked: “they were a little bit back from the frontline.”

Further vindication came from the Chilcot Report – the most comprehensive inquiry into the war. It found that Blair took the UK into war without proper legal justification and on the basis of deeply flawed intelligence. It went on to say that the unconditional support for the US was not in the interests of the UK. It increased terrorism and undermined national security. An additional cost was that no-one was held to account.

Successive war hawks took note of this only. Yet no one was held accountable. That lesson was not lost on future war hawks.

The Iran war has become a bizarre retro homage to the warmongering architects of the Iraq war. Bush and Blair gnawed at the shackles of democracy and laid the groundwork for authoritarian Trump to step out of them altogether. They wrote the playbook for how to execute a war of your choosing – although Trump would deny reading this, firstly because he doesn’t read and secondly, because he is a self-proclaimed genius and expert on everything.

Trump is just a shonky perverted property developer president. No need to bother with pompous patriotism, indulgent ideology and freedom rhetoric bullshit. The rhetoric is cruder now, more openly transactional and violent. It goes to reason that his partner in crime is no pretentious Blair but an alleged genocidal war criminal.

Much of the criticism of Trump’s war romanticises Bush and Blair’s procedural etiquette. The suggestion is that if Trump modelled his war campaign simply by rallying support, building consensus and offering up a coherent case for war in Iran, it would mystically transform into a worthy cause. These arguments are fanciful and hollow; they concede to Trump that there is a ‘right way’ to wage an illegal war in Iran, waiting to be articulated.

Additionally, an expectation that Trump has the ability to understand serious matters of war is nonsensical – as nonsensical as his claim was to end endless wars and deserve peace prizes.

I imagine Albanese, Wong and Marles, as guests on ABC’s Gruen Transfer. Called to judge the most convincing add pitch for the most outrageously unsellable product – Forever Wars of choice: how to wage an illegal war.

In one corner you have Bush and Blair with Operation Iraqi Freedom, scripted by flag-waving neocon war hawks peddling a sexed-up, axis of evil, saviour, saga story of fear and freedom. On the other side Operation Epic Fury, with a video game vibe, scripted by warmonger Netanyahu and bloodthirsty preacher Secretary of War Hegseth (starring Trump’s sons selling drones to the Pentagon).

Their rush out of the global gate to cast votes on Operation Epic Fury, tells us they have lost sight of their original moral compass. High on adrenaline, they’re running around in a new world order of chaos and violence with no guardrails, grasping for favourable polls and clinging to bullies. Chasing the US and Israel and their rogue leaders down an untethered forever war path. Into a lawless hellscape where the Pentagon confirms, “no stupid rules of engagement and no politically correct wars” fester.

Wars built on imperial hubris and delusion never end well. The architects of Operation Iraqi Freedom escaped scot-free. Albanese, Wong and Marles were right to oppose it when they did. They spoke about peace, human suffering and international law. If they have forgotten those principles, the rest of us should not.