re: all good points, except ..
I think some of the universal enthusiasm for WWII is seen through nostalgic hindsight. There was certainly not a lot of enthusiasm for entering the war before Pearl Harbor.
Much of what the media is doing is largely political. Believe me, despite what a lot of people try tell you, if Bush had never gone into Iraq, he would be getting all this same crap about the "Afghanistan Quagmire."
With the economy taking off, Iraq is the last issue the Democrats have got, and they're going to push it to the floorboards.