Five years on the ground, five years deeper into the shit, and pages from the annals of war

Looking to the past for a clue to the future is something rarely done in America's live-in-the-moment improv society. If only someone in charge had looked in the card catalog of the military's back publications, we all could have been spared years of grief and the erosion of America's reputation as a New World power protecting liberty and justice for all. The vintage booklet shown above is part of the "intelligence" we had on file for six decades before Bush's blunder.
Were you covering the six million anti-war marchers protesting against an unnecessary war five years ago? Have you been embedded and did you roam Baghdad and Basra before the insurgency got so out of hand?
If you are shocked but not awed by recent military adventurism, have a look at this very personal website about a GI Jane's Iraqi guide saved from WWII. It's like a gentle I-told-you-so from the grave. Quite sobering.