After defeating a relatively poor & second-rate military power, the fascist Warlords guiding the world's #1 military killing machine looked East with bloodthirsty & covetous eyes toward the vast oil fields. In their Imperial ambition, they figure their massive military technology & firepower will simply "shock & awe" their former ally, and in no time billions of barrels of oil & profits would flow unceasingly back to finance their drive toward Global Domination. Unfortunately--for the evil Warlords--the high-tech "superpower" got ensnarled into a protracted urban slugfest, and the local resistance slowly but surely mastered the advantages of a drawn-out war of attrition. From the apogee of an unrivaled military juggernaut, the Evil Empire soon lost the initiative & began the long slide toward retreat and debacle.

Is this the history lesson of the Summer of 1942 or the Spring of 2003? You decide.