Five lessons learned from Iraq

This came to mind from a Fark thread entitled Ten Iraq lessons learned. You won't like them.

1. Only attack other countries who actually attack you first. Massive retaliation is preferable to incorrect pre-emption.
2. Wars should only be fought to protect the people and the Constitution of the United States, not to reshape the politics of the Middle East or other parts of the world.
3. "Allies" share danger, so that both are safer together than they would be apart. If one group shields another at the cost of their own safety -- shifting danger from one group to another, rather than sharing it -- they are more accurately called a patron, benefactor, or protector, and the quote about "entangling alliances" comes into play.
4. People have friends, countries have interests. The interests of the most annoying state in the union come before even the nicest country overseas.
5. If terrorists hate us for our freedoms, taking away our freedoms to fight them is a stupid idea.