Since invading Iraq, Americans have discovered that the country is a military, political and cultural minefield. But it’s a lesson they could have learned from a pocket-sized booklet published six decades ago by the U.S. government. A Short Guide to Iraq was written to educate World War II servicemen about a place most of them had never heard of. It describes an Iraq familiar to soldiers there today: the heat, the oil, the religious and political factions, the talent for guerrilla war, the taboos against everything from making a pass at a woman to eating with your left hand. The guide anticipates virtually every problem encountered by U.S. forces in the past 15 months, from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal to the increase in casualties since the fall of Baghdad. Full Story
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