Wall Street Journal reporter Greg Jaffe, writing on his blog Washington Wire, noted our revival of a United States Army guidebook for soldiers stationed in Iraq, and says it “includes lots of homespun wisdom that would have come in handy in 2003.”
The book is Instructions for American Servicemen in Iraq during World War II, handed out to soldiers in 1943 and now published with a foreword by Lt. Colonel John A. Nagl. Jaffe notes:

Recently, senior Army and Marine Corps officials have had success in al Anbar province in western Iraq by cutting deals with Iraqi tribal leaders and sheikhs to fight Sunni radical groups like al Qaeda in Iraq. If the Pentagon’s top brass, who initially rejected working with tribal leaders, had read the World War II guide it’s possible that idea would have come to them sooner. “The nomads are divided into tribes headed by sheiks,” the guide notes. “These leaders are very powerful and should be shown great consideration.”