When the U.S. invaded Iraq back in 2003, one of the top military intelligence officers on the ground was a colonel named Steve Rotkoff.

Rotkoff had a sense of history. Even as troops were fighting their way north (my little brother among them), Rotkoff wondered what it would be like to look back 15 or 20 years later (a/k/a, “now”).

He tried keeping a war…