Present-day fighters' guides to Iraq are far more analytical, with Orwellian vocabulary aimed at an educated fighting force. The latest one even quotes the existentialist philosopher Albert Camus. Diagrams outnumber cartoons, and the the volume won't fit easily into a pocket.
This online counterinsurgency field manual, written by the new commander General David Petraeus, came out in mid-December 2006. With 280 pages for the volunteer soldier to ponder, it's ten times as long as the grunts' "Short Guide to Iraq" from 63 years ago and covers some of the same ground. Ironically, General Petraeus extols the armed forces'"Center for Lessons Learned."
Soldiers need to read the roads - where bombs are hidden in rubbish piles, dug into old craters or stashed beneath roadkill. They must be alert for an IED command wire,ready for detonation by a hidden triggerman with a cellphone.
They must read faces in mobs, and see a potential rocket attack where people cluster, or a homemade bomb where there are too few. By questioning the motives of civilians, they can sense a source of urgent danger.
Official US military poster at time of the invasion shows an olive drab determination that freedom is on the march. Four years into the occupation, it was still in use. No one in charge predicted the prolonged insurgency.
Hit the deck-- soldiers abroad were dealt these odd face cards, containing dozens of jokers, ostensibly to learn to identify enemy leaders, Iraq's most wanted.
No, this Mad Magazine Star Wars 2 parody is not official, but it was spotted in quite a few lockers on bases and email in-boxes. Widely circulated in 2002-2003, it looks decidedly dated now. Rumsfeld has long since resigned, Colin Powell is out of the picture, and pot-bellied Saddam was put to death by a bungling hangman.
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